# The most famous heists in history

From the Mona Lisa stolen in 1911 to Napoleon's jewels taken from the Louvre in 2025, by way of the Great Train Robbery and the Antwerp diamonds: the heists that look like something out of a film. Which is the most incredible?

- 0 votes · 11 items
- Aug 23, 2026 · davide_puglia
- https://even.best/en/l/2729/the-most-famous-heists-in-history

## Top 11

1. **The theft of the Mona Lisa (1911)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Handyman Vincenzo Peruggia walked out with it under his smock; it was found two years later.
2. **The Great Train Robbery (1963)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A gang stopped a Royal Mail train and took £2.6 million.
3. **The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum heist (1990)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Fake policemen stole 13 works, including a Vermeer; never recovered.
4. **The Antwerp diamond heist (2003)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Ten layers of security beaten for more than $100 million in stones.
5. **Napoleon's jewels at the Louvre (2025)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Using a lift truck, they got into the Apollo Gallery in broad daylight.
6. **The Lufthansa heist (1978)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Millions in cash and jewels stolen at New York's JFK airport.
7. **Hatton Garden (2015)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Elderly thieves drilled through a concrete wall in London.
8. **The Banco Central burglary in Fortaleza (2005)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A tunnel to the vault and tens of millions taken.
9. **The Stockholm helicopter robbery (2009)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — A stolen helicopter landed on the roof of a cash depot.
10. **The United California Bank burglary (1972)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Explosives to open the safe deposit boxes.
11. **The Great Brink's Robbery (1950)** (0 · ▲0 ▼0) — Eleven men with copied keys in Boston.

How is this ranking ordered? By people's votes: each ▲ adds a point and each ▼ takes one away. Anyone can vote and add what is missing.