In March and April 2003, some 10,000 artifacts were taken from the Iraqi National Museum by U.S. Department of Defense contractors, who used them as gifts or bribes, or sold them. Two contractors were caught and sent to prison. Although the statue of King Entemena of Lagash (left) was found and returned to the Government of Iraq in 2006, some 7,000 to 10,000 artifacts remain missing.

2. Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Theft

During St. Patrick's Day celebrations on the night of March 17, 1990, two men dressed as Boston police entered the museum, tied up the two night guards, and stole 11 paintings by artists such as Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and Vermeer, and two artifacts, together worth up to $500 million. Some 23 years later, the museum is still offering a $5 million reward for their safe return.

3. Theft of Caravaggio's Nativity

In October 1969, two thieves robbed the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Italy, removing from its frame the painting Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francesco by Italian artist Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1571-1610). It is estimated to be worth $20 million.

4. Theft of the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius

In October 1995, a $3 million Stradivarius violin was stolen from the New York City apartment of concert violinist Erica Morini. Made in 1727, the violin is known as the Davidoff-Morini Stradivarius.

5. The Van Gogh Museum Robbery

In December 2002, two thieves broke into the Amsterdam museum after climbing to the roof. They took two paintings, valued at $30 million: Van Gogh's View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen. Two men were convicted for the theft, but the paintings have never been recovered.

6. Theft of Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise

On New Year's Eve 1999, during the fireworks that celebrated the beginning of the new millennium, a thief broke into the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England and stole the landscape painting, valued at 3 million British pounds.

7. Theft of Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney Murals

In July 2002, a burglar or burglars stole two oil paintings by Maxfield Parrish from a gallery in West Hollywood, Calif. The paintings, which were two panels from a series commissioned for Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's 5th Ave. mansion in New York, were cut from their frames. They are valued at $4 million.

8. Theft from the Museu Chacara Do Ceu, Rio De Janiero

On February 24, 2006, four paintings by Salvador Dali, Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, and Claude Monet, plus other art objects, were stolen from the museum by four armed men. No value for the artworks has been established. Pictured is one of the stolen pieces, Two Balconies by Salvador Dali.

9. Theft of A Cavalier from Art Gallery of New South Wales

On June 10, 2007, A Cavalier, a self-portrait on wood panel by Dutch Master Frans Van Mieris, was stolen from the Art Gallery of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia. It is worth is estimated at some $1 million.

10. Theft of Renoir Oil Painting

On September 8, 2011, an armed robber broke into a Houston, Texas home and stole the 1918 painting Madeleine Leaning on Her Elbow with Flowers in Her Hair by Pierre Auguste Renoir. It was taken with its frame. A private insurer has offered a $50,000 reward for the painting's safe return.