Stolen Masterpieces Worth $10 Million Discovered in a Cardboard Box, Months After Thieves Snuck Into a Museum and Whisked Them Away Into the Night

Long after closing time, the thieves slipped into the dark museum through a window. Security footage shows them quietly removing three pieces from the wall. The artworks were worth more than $10 million, and they had vanished in less than three minutes.

Now, following a lengthy investigation, the missing artworks have been recovered, Italian officials announced on August 14. Police found them inside an empty television box at a home in Parma, Italy. Five suspects have been arrested in connection with the burglary.

They had been on display at the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, a museum located about 12 miles from Parma. In late March, the thieves approached the museum in the middle of the night and set their plan in motion. To avoid detection, they allegedly disabled the building’s alarm system and set off a fire extinguisher, hoping to distract security.

By the time the police arrived, they had escaped the premises. The incident occurred about five months after a shocking heist at the Louvre in Paris. Since then, aspiring art thieves have learned “that they can get into any museum if they cover their faces and move quickly enough,” Marinello said.

About a decade earlier, an audit had flagged a major security vulnerability: The password for the museum’s CCTV network was “Louvre,” in capital letters. Had the most-visited art museum in the world beefed up its systems since then? Several suspects have been arrested in connection with the Louvre heist, but the jewels are nowhere to be found.

In Italy, meanwhile, the Magnani-Rocca Foundation thieves may have had one vital weakness: Officials say they may be connected to 14 other thefts at homes and businesses in the area, but they had little experience with art heists. In this case, the works were immediately added to databases identifying missing masterpieces. The thieves, perhaps unsure how to proceed, kept them in Parma.