Missing Masterpieces

The history of art is littered with tragic tales of lost and stolen masterpieces. In this thrilling globetrotting investigation, Kenneth MacInnes explores the extraordinary stories behind a number of astonishing works. Spanning continents and centuries, this is a story of greed, theft, subterfuge and beauty.

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As auction prices continue to climb and the super-rich continue to use works of great beauty of investment vehicles, it is impossible not to speculate about the fates of the hundreds of antiques, jewels and paintings that have gone missing over the past thousand years... Where are the world’s lost masterpieces?

Paintings once seized by the Nazis as spoils of war are now worth up to $100 million each. 100,000 works of Depression-era art in the United States are missing, valued at around $1 billion. Priceless Chinese antiques, Middle Eastern treasures and legendary Romanov diamonds have been plundered by invaders and lost in countless bloody revolutions.

This book tells the story of stolen heirlooms, daring heists, fabled gems, dark secrets and vanished paintings now worth a small – or sometimes very large – fortune.