The 10 Most Infamous Heists... Ever

From priceless art thefts to infamous bank robberies, here are a few of the most sensational heists from around the world.

1. Scream

Edvard Munch's famous painting, The Scream, was sensationally stolen twice from the National Gallery of Norway.

In 1994 two men took just 50 seconds to climb a ladder, smash through a window of the Gallery and cut the painting from the wall with wire cutters.

A few months later the thieves offered the painting back in exchange for a $1 million ransom, but the offer was refused. Luckily a sting operation held in May 1994 successfully recovered the painting, and four men were convicted and sentenced for the theft in 1996. 

Ten years later, the painting was stolen again, this time alongside Munch's Madonna. Two armed, masked robbers burst into the Oslo museum in August 2004, snatching the artworks from the walls as horrified tourists looked on.

Police recovered the works in August 2006, but found they were scratched and torn and showed signs of damp. They have now been restored and are hanging back in the Gallery – where visitors are subjected to tighter security checks.

2. The biggest art heist in history?

The culprits of this 1990 heist are still at large today.

Just a few hours after Boston's St. Patrick's Day festivities ended, two men dressed as policemen knocked on a side door at the Isabella Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts.

The guards let them in – only to then realise to their horror that these were not police officers, but art thieves. The guards were handcuffed, gagged and dragged into the basement while the thieves cut three Rembrandt's from their frames, as well as "The Concert" by Johannes Vermeer and "Landscape with an Obelisk" by Govert Flinck.

In total they snatched 12 paintings worth an estimated £300 million – the paintings have never been found, and the museum never reimbursed.

3. America’s most notorious hijacker

“D. B. Cooper” is still at large after 35 years of being on the run. On November 24 1971 he hijacked Northwest Orient Airlines flight 305 with a briefcase "bomb." He handed a flight attendant a note saying "I have a bomb in my briefcase. I will use it if necessary. I want you to sit next to me. You are being hijacked."

The flight attendant alerted the pilot, who was instructed by radio control to comply with Cooper's requests, which were a parachute and $200,000.

Passengers were dropped off at the Seattle-Tacoma airport, in exchange for the parachute and cash. Loot in hand, Cooper instructed the pilot to take to the skies again, this time headed for Mexico.

When Cooper jumped from the plane, it was flying through a heavy rainstorm with no light source coming from the ground due to cloud coverage. Because of the poor visibility, his descent went unnoticed by the jet fighters tracking the airliner. He is believed to have landed around Ariel, Washington, although his precise landing zone remains unknown.

The whereabouts of the man (or his remains) has been described as “one of the great crime mysteries of our time.”

4. The Great Train Robbery

This notorious robbery involved a 15-member gang, led by Bruce Reynolds and including Ronnie Biggs, who took £2.6 million from a Royal Mail train in Buckhamshire in 1963.

The men brought the Glasgow to London mail train to a halt by tampering with the signals. They then swarmed onto the train, badly injuring the driver, and grabbed 120 mail bags containing used bank notes. Most of the gang members were caught after police discovered their fingerprints at their hideout at Leatherslade Farm, near Oakley, Buckinghamshire. The robbers were tried, sentenced and imprisoned.

Ronnie Biggs escaped from prison 15 months into his sentence and moved to Brazil – but he returned to the UK in 2001 to serve the remainder of his 30-year sentence. Charlie Wilson also escaped prison and lived in a quiet suburban street in Canada – unfortunately for him, his wife made the mistake of telephoning his parents in England, enabling Scotland Yard to track him down.

5. Brinks Mat

In 1983 six robbers broke into the Brinks Mat warehouse at Heathrow Airport, England. They were going to steal £3 million in cash; but when they arrived they found ten tonnes of gold bullion, worth £26 million.

The gang got into the warehouse thanks to security guard Anthony Black, who was the brother-in-law of the raid's architect Brian Robinson. Scotland Yard quickly discovered the family connection and Black confessed to aiding and abetting the raiders, providing them with a key to the main door and giving them details of security measures.

Robinson was sentenced to 25 years imprisonment for armed robbery; Black got six years, and served three.

Three tonnes of stolen gold has never been recovered. It is claimed that anyone wearing gold jewellery bought in the UK after 1983 is probably wearing Brinks Mat.

6. Shergar

“Shergar the wonder-horse”, who was worth around £10 million, was kidnapped from a stables owned by the Aga Khan in Ireland in 1983. The theft came just before the breeding season, where Derby winner Shergar was due to mate with up to 55 mares.

Shergar was never found and his kidnappers have never been officially identified – but most evidence points to the involvement of the IRA. The thieves demanded a ransom of £2 million, but the horses’ shareholders refused to pay. Insurers also refused to pay out without evidence of the horse’s death.

Sean O'Callaghan, a convicted murderer who turned into a supergrass against the IRA, wrote a book called The Informer in which he claims the horse died because its IRA captors could not handle the animal.

"To handle Shergar, the IRA recruited a man who had once 'worked with horses'. But working with horses is one thing: dealing with a thoroughbred stallion, which can be a difficult, highly-strung creature at the best of times, is another story altogether," he said. He goes on to claim that the horse got out of control in its horsebox, injured itself and died within days.

7. Bull semen…

From prize horses to… bull semen. It may be unsavoury, but it is worth a lot of money. In November 2005, a farmer at Stonewood Acres in Smithburg, Maryland returned to his farm to discover that a 70-pound tank filled with bull semen had been opened up, with sixty-five "straws" containing the sperm of nearly 50 bulls missing.

The missing straws were worth about $75,000. The farmer, who had taken years to build up his supply, was planning on selling the semen at a cattle show.

“Frozen bull semen is big business because it saves on the transportation cost of putting a bull and a cow into the same pen to breed. Frozen semen can also last for many years, outliving the bull who produced it,” according to the Washington Post.

The number of potential suspects was limited because of the specialized knowledge and equipment required to keep and sell the semen – yet the culprit was never found.

8. Oscar jewelry theft

This year thieves broke into the showroom of an Italian jeweler and stole £10 million worth of diamonds while its owners were in Los Angeles hosting a party to celebrate the Oscars.

The heist took place at the Damiani showroom in Milan’s fashion district as celebrities such as Tilda Swinton were sporting Damiani jewelry at the Oscar ceremony.

The thieves had spent more than a month digging a tunnel from a disused cellar in an adjoining building. Police said that the drilling had been heard for weeks but was presumed to be part of continuing building works next door.

The four men, disguised as police officers, overpowered the staff and tied them up with electrical cable, sealed their mouths with tape and locked them in the washroom. They then helped themselves to jewellery from the safe-deposit boxes and left the way they had come.

Police said that the entire operation had taken little more than 40 minutes. The employees managed to free themselves and raise the alarm, but by then the gang was long gone. The thieves, who Police say may have had “inside assistance”, have still not been caught.

9. Bank tunnel robbery

Thieves in Brazil netted $65 million after digging a 200m tunnel into a bank from a nearby house. The heist, which occurred in August 2005, is Brazil’s largest ever bank robbery. Around 10 men are thought to have spent three months digging a hole from a house that was rented in the name of a fake gardening business.

The theft happened over the weekend, but was not discovered until Monday morning because the bank was closed. Neighbours reported seeing vanloads of material being removed each day.

Only two suspects have been caught and only $500,000 has been recovered.

10. Castle tourist theft

In August 2003 a painting worth up to £50 million – Madonna with the Yarnwinder – was snatched from the Duke of Buccleuch's home at Drumlanrig Castle in Scotland. The painting was stolen by two men who joined a public tour and overpowered a guide.

Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the Art Loss Register, said such a heist "would probably be easier to do it when it was open to the public rather than at night when all the alarms were set".

The painting is still missing despite the offer of a substantial reward for information leading to the arrest of the thieves.

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Comments

[Michael]

There's an error here in the story about the stolen copies of Munch's The Scream. The first time The Scream was stolen was indeed from the National Gallery in Oslo but the second robbery was from a different museum (the Munch Museum, also in Oslo) and was a _different_ version of The Scream. In other words there are two different versions of the painting at two different museums, although both have been stolen, and recovered.

[eli]

Here's a newslink reporting the recovery of item #10 on yourlist. The Madonna of the Yarnwinder by DaVinci was recovered only four years after the heist. http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://clippednews.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/madonnayarnwinderlansdowne.jpg&imgrefurl=http://clippednews.wordpress.com/2007/10/05/madonna-back-to-buccleuch/&h=683&w=500&sz=69&hl=en&start=2&usg=__TVpgzUI-Vw5GI1Ps2tUpiDwVeIo=&tbnid=flqaVq0iO35zUM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dmadonna%2Bof%2Bthe%2Byarnwinder%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG

[Thomas]

D.B. Cooper probably didn't survive the jump. In 1980, $5,880 of the money was found in a river bank of the Columbia River. The FBI has serial numbers of all the $20 bills and none of them have ever turned up in circulation (e.g. they've never been spent).

[Dave Armstrong]

"America’s most notorious hijacker".

Many long hours were spent trying to resolve the intriguing question of why the hijacker demanded two parachutes; after all he left the plane alone.

It was decided that the most plausible explanation was that he knew that if he only asked for one it could be tampered with prior to delivery , with fatal consequences for himself...whereas by demanding two, the powers-that-be would have no option other than to provide two properly functioning parachutes in case he took a hosatge with him, as they would have no means of ensuring that he, and he alone, would be wearing a defective device. And his clever thinking paid off.

[Peter Cowie]

What about the £5 billion a year, starting in 1997, so rising in line with inflation ever since, stolen by Gordon Brown from pension schemes through the withdrawal of their ability to reclaim the tax credits on dividends received from UK companies?

[Ignatz Horowitz]

What about stodge's brain?

[Bing]

wHaTaBoUt? Winnona Ryder??

[Paul]

I think you mean pedant, Arthur Brain. Who looks stupid now ...?

[Gareth]

When people talk about the '£30bn of taxpayers money' used to bail out Northern Rock they have been misinformed. The money didnt come from anywhere - it was created out of thin air by the Bank Of England. The only effect it has on the taxpayer is the dilution (inflation) of the money in their bank accounts - more than a thousand pounds worth for every man, woman and child in the UK.

[Arthur Brain]

Dare I suggest Chris, that the reason they have used the term heist and not robbery is because the term robbery is defined as theft with the use of force or threat of violence whereas heist is to more akin to a bugulary. Many of the examples were conducted without force and therefore cannot be described as robberies.
Don't be a pendant unless you know what they hell you are talking about or you just look stupid...

[chris]

Why use an American word "Heist" ?

Why not use the term "Robbery" ?

[jan]

what about the millions that Tony Blair stole from the taxpayers of this country during his, and his wifes, time in power

[youtube]

thanks

[Midas]

How about the millions in gold that was stolen from the underground vault at the WTC on September 11? They found one van full of gold in the parkade, but millions more are missing. Maybe that's where they're getting the gold for those ridiculous 9/11 gold coins you see on TV.

[John]

I think the biggest robbery in the UK must be the robbery of the "Great" from "Great Britain" that has been carried out by the Labour Government over the past 11 years.

[sam]

What about the Loyds Bank robbery???

[checkitout]

Wasn't there an Amsterdam diamond heist a few years ago where the thieves disabled the security system and raided the entire vault over the weekend?

[johntravolta]

What about Frank Abignale who made millions by forging checks at the age of 17?

[blueswannabe]

Surely the 26.5 million sterling taken in Northern Ireland is worth a mention? Ignoring politics, not a shot fired, money disappeared overnight. But when the heat was on one of the men was arrested while burning the money!lol Priceless..

[Anonymous]

What about the Scientologist leaders who broke into the IRS?

What about the Scientologist members who have been frauded out of millions of dollars to be part of a "religion" business.

[Stevehops]

I thought about getting a crew together and taking a stab at Fort Knox, but I hear there isn't really any gold in there ;-)

Fictional Ultimate Heist:
http://www.stevehops.com/Screenplays/fortknox.pdf

[Ivan Williams]

Since when is 2008 minus 1971 equal to 35? MS calc tells me DB Cooper's been at large 37 years...

[Michael Mumby]

What about the billions the bush administration has duped the tax paying public? that atleast deserves an honorable mention here.

[York]

How about the whiney brats that post on here about how 'the Man' took their 'money?'

[Stodge]

What about the 30bn Northern Rock fleeced from the taxpayer?

[Rudolph.a.Furtado]

What about the unforgettable "ZAVERI JEWELLERY SHOWROOM" heist in the 1980's.
A man stayed at a "Five Star hotel " in Mumbai, recruited staff through a newspaper advertisement and told them that they were employed for a "GOvt Intelligence Agency".Next, one fine morning he took his "STAFF" to "Zaveri Jewellers showroom" at Opera House(Mumbai) and told the management that they were being "RAIDED" by the "Tax Dept".He collected all the "Jewellery" and went off alone in the van leaving his "STAFF" in the showroom.Later the police arrived and the "Staff" were stunned to realise that they were employed by a con man on a con job!
The thief was never apprehended and till today this case torments the intelligence Dept for its simplicity and audacity with not a weapon being fired nor a murdur comitted and jewellery worth millions of rupees in 2008 valuation vanishing into oblivion.
This case has a lot of similarities with the D.B Cooper case of U.S.A

[virgo]

What about the formation of the
Federal Reserve,created in 1913 to print money out of thin air.IT is not Federal AND IT HOLDS NO RESERVES.

[Joseph Walker]

What about the short-selling of HBOS last week, or the short selling of Lehman Brothers the week before that? The thieves got away with millions...

[Michael]

The Yarnwinder was recovered in Glascow in October 2007.