Art theft in the context of "Vorderasiatisches Museum Berlin"

Looted art has been a consequence of looting during war, natural disaster and riot for centuries. Looting of art, archaeology and other cultural property may be an opportunistic criminal act or may be a more organized case of unlawful or unethical pillage by the victor of a conflict. The term "looted art" reflects bias, and whether particular art has been taken legally or illegally is often the subject of conflicting laws and subjective interpretations of governments and people; use of the term "looted art" in reference to a particular art object implies that the art was taken illicitly.

Related terms include art theft (the stealing of valuable artifacts, mostly because of commercial reasons), illicit antiquities (covertly traded antiquities or artifacts of archaeological interest, found in illegal or unregulated excavations), provenance (the origin or source of a piece of art), and art repatriation (the process of returning artworks and antiques to their rightful owners).

The Sforza Hours (British Library, London, Add. MS 34294), is a richly illuminated book of hours initiated by Bona Sforza, widow of Galeazzo Sforza, Duke of Milan, around 1490, who commissioned the illuminator Giovanni Pietro Birago [nl]. The book remained in an unfinished state for 30 years until Margaret of Austria, Regent of the Netherlands, commissioned its completion in 1517–20 from the artist Gerard Horenbout. The book therefore contains decoration of the highest quality by two artists. It provides a unique example of an early sixteenth-century Northern Renaissance illuminator's response to Milanese art of the late Quattrocento. The history of the Sforza Hours also includes one of the earliest recorded examples of art theft.

It has been in the British Library since 1893.

On 19 October 2025, thieves disguised as construction workers stole eight pieces of the French Crown Jewels valued at approximately €88 million from the Galerie d'Apollon (lit. 'Apollo's Gallery') of the Louvre in Paris, France. The robbery took less than eight minutes, of which the thieves spent four in the museum itself, and occurred during regular opening hours. It was the first art theft from the Louvre since the painting Le chemin de Sèvres was stolen in 1998.

Within a week, two men in their 30s from Seine‑Saint‑Denis were arrested in connection with the robbery. Nine further suspects were detained throughout the course of the investigation, six of whom were released. Charges have been filed against five suspects thus far, and the location of the jewels is still unknown.