Three Iraqi men have been arrested for stealing eight artifacts, including the bust of a Sumerian king. Each piece dated from around 2000 to 4000 BCE. It remains unclear from which museums the items were stolen, since the theft of such relics and works of art is becoming more and more common in Iraq. The men were arrested after trying to sell one of these artifacts for $160,000 to an undercover intelligence officer. Join discussion...

Recently, the painting Taking of Christ, or the Kiss of Judas, has been found after it was stolen from the Museum of Western and Eastern Art in the Black Sea port of Odessa in July. The painting was reported to have been found near the Ministry of the Interior in Ukraine. Police officers believe that the thieves only managed to escape with the painting because they were able to bypass the alarm system by removing a window pane in the museum instead of breaking it. Join discussion...

Over 80 ancient Egyptian artifacts were returned to a museum in Egypt, after being stolen and sold by an American helicopter pilot in 2002. Some artifacts dated back to 3000 BC, and were taken back into Egyptian custody when border Immigration and customs enforcement seized them after an interrogation. Join discussion...

The Cleveland Museum of Art is returning several artifacts to their "rightful place" in Italy. Among these artifacts is a cross from the renaissance. Italy claims that these items were stolen from them- Cleveland had obtained them mostly through donations. After much negotiation, the museum agreed to give the artifacts back. In return, Italy will lend items of similar value and help with exhibitions and cultural exchanges. Join discussion...

A retired lawyer, Robert Mardirosian, has just been found guilty of knowingly possessing seven stolen paintings worth 30 million dollars that he had received more than 20 years prior. This act of theft is the largest known in Massachusetts history. Robert Mardirosian had been attempting to sell the piece of art, but was unsuccessful. Now 72, Mardirosian faces up to 10 years in prison, 3 years of supervised release and a 250,000 dollar fine. Join discussion...

Fourteen recently stolen paintings were auctioned at Christie's King Street auction house. These paintings, part of a set of 69, had been stolen from an on-loan exhibition at Abbot Hall, a house turned museum, in 2006. For some reason they were never registered as stolen, and as such never caught when they were put for auction. It was only until after they were sold that they were discovered to be stolen. The miniatures will soon be returned to their owner who lent them out. Join discussion...

This news article highlights a few famous painting robberies. One of them is about a man who stole the Scream by Munch. The M&M company offered 2 million M&Ms to whoever returned the missing painting. The man who stole the painting arranged for the Scream to be returned after he had been to court. The goverment was stupid and didn't give him the 2 million M&Ms because he was found guilty. How retarded?? The rest of the article was about 2 Picasso paintings that had been recently stolen and also about other criminals jacking famous paintings. There were some infamous bands of painting stealers covered including The Balkan Bandits and Bayonne Bandits. Each of these groups of people are responsible for taking a lot of famous artwork from all around Europe. The reporter who wrote the news article interviewed 4 investigators who followed well known art gangs like the Balkan Bandits. Most of the detectives said that the recent robberies were acted by the Balkans because the robberies were reported to have been spoken in Slavik German (the Balkan Bandits are known for being Slavik German). Two of the four most recently stolen paintings have already been recovered. Many of the detectives stated that the shocking thing is that in the past few years, art theives have turned to using guns and other weapons. Before, the Mafia didnt even use weapons in art robberys. I thought this was suprising. Join discussion...

In 1966, a Harvard student visiting Northeastern Thailand to research his thesis tripped over a tree root and hit his head. But then he made one of the biggest accidental archaeological finds in history. What he found was thousands of pieces of evidence - pots and jewelry, ceramic, stoneware, bronze - of the Ban Chiang culture that is thought to be the earliest prehistoric settlement in Southeast Asia. The excavation of the tens of thousands of antiquities started in the 1970s. Over the years, many, if not most, of these pieces have ended up in the hands of private collectors as well as many American museums. After conducting a five-year secret investigation by three federal agencies of these pieces and how they came to be in these museums' hands, Thailand wants them back. Badly. Their argument is that the antiquities located in the U.S. are stolen material. The legal matter is nowhere near being "cut and dry", but there is a chance that both U.S. and Thai law agrees on the matter. In addition, museum curators and other experts have said that this might be more of an ethical matter than a legal one. But as for the legal side, Stephen K. Urice, a professor at the University of Miami School of Law believes the case could swing in any direction, saying that “the whole thing could be dropped altogether because of insufficient evidence or because they are feeling weak about their legal theories, or this could move forward into an important, precedent-setting case.” Join discussion...

Roman police have recovered several ancient works of art including Ancient Greek pottery and part of a fresco believed to have belonged to Emperor Nero's wife. The fresco, which was near Pompeii at its time, was burried in twenty feet of ash after the famous eruption of Mount Vesuvius that killed all of Pompeii's inhabitants. The fresco and other arifacts that were stolen in the 1970s were found in various collections in different countries in Europe. They were believed to have been stolen through a European art trafficking ring and thirty-one people are currently being investigated, though no arrests have been made yet. Join discussion...