It’s rare for the visual arts to make headline news, and it’s unfortunate when they do in a story like this one. On the night of May 19, a masked man entered the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris through a window and stole five oil painted pictures, removing them from their frames and escaping without setting off an alarm. The story quickly made headlines, partially because of the crime’s lurid intrigue and partially because of the estimated value of the words – over $120 million. Since then, we’ve all seen a picture of the painting Le pigeon aux petits pois by Picasso or of La Pastorale by Matisse alongside an article. Those two landscape portraits are usually the only ones mentioned, as the significant but lesser known Modigliani, Léger, and Braque works are often unfortunately lumped together as “three other paintings”.

What can this man possibly be planning to do with his contraband? Plenty of art thieves actually count on simply ransoming the stolen goods back to the owner. More strangely, after a painting has passed through several different owners, it can often be sold to an unknowing customer who is led to believe that the painting is a very high quality reproduction – not the work itself but a skillful oil painting from a picture of the original. What’s most likely in this situation is a third option. Although the value of a stolen painting is markedly less than the official value, the underground art market is unfortunately very healthy. The authorities seem to suspect that this is what’s happening with the five stolen oil portraits, as Interpol has issued a global alert, implying they believe the works may already have been removed from France.

Since the heist, I’ve been thinking about the many works that have unfortunately been lost to the world through theft, violence, and greed. Over the next few months, I’m going to look back at some of the more significant treasures that are no longer with us. Some of these painted pictures are gone forever, while others are waiting to come home. To keep the list contained, I’m going to stick with just paintings and portraits that are currently missing. Plenty of famous pieces of original oil art have taken their own trips into obscurity before reappearing – the Mona Lisa went missing for two years after it was stolen in 1911, and Caravaggio’s The Taking of Christ was presumed lost for over 200 years before it was rediscovered hanging in a Jesuit residence in Dublin. Similarly, while paintings can be some of the more delicate and movable of the visual arts, they are not the only ones to be victims. Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà was attacked with a hammer in 1972, the 6th century Buddhas of Bamiyan were destroyed with dynamite by the Taliban in 2001, and in recent years American thieves have taken to stealing modern bronze and copper sculptures to strip down and sell for scrap metal.

Sadly, the list could go on without end, but we’ll focus just on the landscape and portrait painting works that are no longer with us, as we ask ourselves, “Why these works?” and “What are we missing, now that they’re gone?”