Connoisseur's Guide: Great Art Thefts

摘要

Art theft is big business. According to the latest statistics from Interpol, somewhere between $4 billion and $6 billion in art is stolen each year. One of the largest hauls? The 140 pieces of Mayan, Aztec, Zapotec and Mixtec art lifted from Mexico City's National Museum of Anthropology on Christmas Eve, 1985. Most of the objects were eventually recovered, but the museum's curator estimated that one piece alone—a monkey-shaped vase—could have fetched more than $20 million on the open market, if a buyer could have been found.