The 10 Greatest Art Heists of All Time (5 of 6)

How To Earn $114 Million For One Minute of Work (2019)

One of the largest art thefts of all time took place at Dresden’s Grünes Gewölbe museum in 2019 when six men were able to steal around $114 million worth of famous jewelry objects by smashing the glass display case with an axe. It took them all of one minute to enter and exit, guys. This incident does have a happy ending though. They were caught in late 2022, convicted, and almost all of the stolen items were recovered.

A Foolish Night At the Museum (1990)

Most people in Boston spend the day after St. Patrick’s Day recovering from their hangover. But a couple of chums had more pressing matters, namely stealing $500 million worth of artwork, the largest such heist in history. Frankly, in order for them to pull this off, they needed the two guards to commit a series of actions that completely went against protocol. So of course they did. The thieves, dressed in fake police uniforms, were able to get buzzed in. They were able to get Guard #1 to call Guard #2 over and managed to move them away from the desk so that they couldn’t press the panic button. Handcuffed and duct taped, the guards were tossed into a basement room while the thieves parted the museum of a ridiculous number of priceless paintings and other art pieces. The heisters were never identified and as of 2025 none of the stolen items have been recovered. The guards were originally suspected of being accomplices, but the FBI concluded they were a pair of incompetent buffoons and, therefore, couldn’t have been on it.