Louvre jewel theft: latest in string of museum heists

"The heist at the Louvre in Paris on Sunday is the latest major robbery of artworks and precious objects from museums. Here are some precedents: The Mona Lisa, The Louvre The Louvre, the world's most visited art museum, has been targeted more than once over the years. READ MORE: Paris Louvre heist lays bare museum security complaints The most audacious incident was the theft of Leonardo da Vinci's iconic "Mona Lisa" on August 21, 1911."

"Suspicion initially fell on poet Guillaume Apollinaire and artist Pablo Picasso. But the culprit turned out to be an Italian glazier who had helped frame the museum's paintings and knew his way around the building. Glazier Vincenzo Perugia hid the Renaissance masterpiece in his Paris home for two years before trying to sell the portrait to a Florentine dealer. The risky venture backfired. The dealer raised the alar,m and Vincenzo was jailed for seven months."

"Montreal Museum of Fine Arts In the early hours of September 4, 1972 -- Canada's Labour Day holiday -- three masked robbers armed with machine guns and rifles took advantage of building repair work to slip into the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts via a skylight. The skylight was usually secured by an alarm but that had been deactivated while the roof was being mended. The thieves made off with 18 invaluable paintings and around 40 items of jewellery and precious objects worth a total $2 million at the time. Their value has skyrocketed since. The works stolen during the Skylight Caper -- which included paintings attributed to 17th-century Flemish masters Rembrandt, Brueghel the Elder and Rubens, and 19th-century French Romantics Corot and Delacroix. Only one painting and one piece of jewellery are thought to have been recovered. Boston's Gardner Museum Early on the morning of March 18, 1990, two men disguised as police officers tricked staff at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston and walked off with 13 works by grand masters including Degas, Rembrandt, Vermeer and"

Major museums have experienced repeated, high-value thefts of paintings and precious objects. The Mona Lisa was stolen on August 21, 1911, hidden for two years by glazier Vincenzo Perugia, and later recovered; Perugia was jailed for seven months. In 1972, three masked robbers exploited a deactivated skylight alarm during repairs at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and stole 18 paintings and about 40 items of jewellery and precious objects worth $2 million at the time, with only one painting and one jewellery piece recovered. In 1990 two men disguised as police stole 13 works from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.

Read at The Local France