How to Steal Like a Mastermind: Beginner’s Art Heist Guide

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Plus, explore some of the most notorious art heists of all time

Co-authored by MUBI and Dan Hickey

Last Updated: December 12, 2025 Fact Checked

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Art Heist Checklist

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Robbing the Museum

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Getting Away with MUBI

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Real Life Art Heists

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Priceless works of art, gone in a flash! Museum heists have captured our imaginations for centuries, but have you ever considered what it would be like to pull one off yourself, hypothetically? Kelly Reichhardt’s new film THE MASTERMIND, starring Josh O’Connor and Alana Haim, explores the planning (and consequences) of an old-fashioned art heist, and we’ve partnered with the cinema streaming platform MUBI to walk you through exactly how someone could theoretically execute a proper museum robbery. (Warning: we don’t recommend actually trying this, unless you want to end up in the back of a police car.) We’ve also got juicy details about some of the most infamous art heists in history.

Section 1 of 4:

Art Heist Preparation Checklist

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Preparation is key when it comes to pulling off a successful art heist. Thankfully, a thief only needs a handful of items, and most of them are probably lying around the house already! Who knew that lifting precious art from a museum would be such a breeze?
- 2-3 accomplices. Pretty much anyone will do. We recommend some friends who like to steal and don’t take much convincing. Wild cards are a plus!
- A getaway car. If it has four wheels and moves, it’ll work just fine. Art thieves should avoid using their own vehicle (it’s easier to trace back to them). Instead, they should try stealing one!
- A getaway car driver. A thief needs a trusty accomplice to take the wheel once the goods are loaded in the trunk.
- A valid driver’s license (in case the trusty getaway car driver bails—it happens!).
- Some cash to keep the kids occupied. The thief can send them off for an afternoon of games and junk food so they’re not a distraction.
- Pillowcases or sacks. They’ll need to be big enough to hold the paintings.
- Flashcards of the to-be-stolen art. These help the crew know which works of art to grab. Printed images are best, but hand drawings work too.
- Pantyhose. Lots of pantyhose. Don’t worry, a thief will be completely unrecognizable once they slip it over their head!
  - A good heist movie, like THE MASTERMIND. It helps to watch a pro for inspiration! Stream THE MASTERMIND and more excellent films on MUBI to round out the prep work

Section 2 of 4:

Robbing the Museum

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1
Spend lots of time at the museum to scout the place out. To nab those priceless paintings, a thief is going to need to know which gallery they’re in, how heavily they’re guarded, and how long it’ll take to get in and out of the joint. The thief should visit the museum often and take their time exploring. Take note of things like:
- Where the security guards are stationed and how alert they are.
- How securely the paintings are fastened to the wall (if lucky, they’ll lift right off!).
- How long it takes to make their way to the gallery and get back out.
- The best place to park the getaway car for a fast escape.
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Steal something small, like a figurine, to test the security. It’s best to have a practice round before the thief goes for the gold. They should pick a small, easy-to-grab item that won’t be missed right away, like a little figurine. They’ll need to make sure no one’s watching, act natural, and keep their eyes peeled for security and onlookers as they slowly and quietly open the display case. Then, they can pocket the figurine—or better yet, stick it in their spouse’s bag to smuggle it right out the front door.
- The thief will want to stay back for a minute while their spouse exits the museum. Do any alarms go off, or were they stopped by security? No? Good! They’re in the clear.
- Pro tip: A thief should bring their family along to turn practice time into bonding time. Their talkative kids can keep their spouse distracted so they can focus on their craft!
3
Assemble a crew and explain the plan. At this point, the art robber should gather 2-3 of their most skilled and trustworthy pals (and if they’re not available, a couple of questionable acquaintances should work just fine). The next step is holding a meeting in a secure, top-secret venue, like their basement, to explain their simple-but-effective plan: enter the museum, throw the paintings in bags, and run out to the getaway car. Easy!
- The thief’s accomplices might doubt how simple the operation is at first. They’ll need to be reassured that it’s an easy grab-and-go job that’ll be done in just a few minutes!
- When’s the best time to rob an art museum? A sunny weekday morning, of course. The museum won’t be super crowded, and security won’t expect a genius theft to occur in broad daylight. It shouldn’t be a day when school is canceled, though, or there might be kids everywhere.
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Get the crew and getaway car in position. Once the robber has their supplies and crew, it’s time for action. Everyone should load into the getaway car and make sure they’ve got their painting bags, flashcards, and pantyhose. The crew will want to review the flashcards on their way to the museum so they know what to grab. Once they’re dropped off, the driver can park the car in a pre-determined getaway spot. Anywhere the thieves can easily run to after they lift the goods will work, as long as it’s not near any cop cars.
- Got kids? No problem! The thief can hand them some cash and let them loose without supervision for the afternoon. Proper childcare will only complicate things.
- Did the getaway driver bail? Uh oh! Looks like someone will have to hop in the driver’s seat. It’s like the old saying goes, “If you want something done right, do it yourself.”
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Walk in and grab the art—really, it’s that easy. Now for the part everyone’s been waiting for! With their bags and pantyhose tucked secretly away, the thieves should make their way to the gallery where the paintings are (hopefully they remembered their flashcards). Once the room clears out, it’s time for the pantyhose disguises. The thieves can then grab the paintings off the wall (with any luck, they won’t be bolted or secured at all) and carefully put them in the bags for safekeeping.
- Once the paintings are in possession, everyone should run and meet the getaway driver at the designated spot as quickly and discreetly as possible. Easy, right?
- What if security tries to intervene on the way out? In that case, everyone should flail their limbs around to confuse and overpower the guards. Once they’re subdued, the crew can resume running!
The driver should start the car as soon as they see the accomplices sprinting out the front door of the museum. They’ll want to pop the trunk so no one wastes time fumbling with it themselves, and have them load the artwork into the back. When everyone has made it into the car, it’s time to drive away fast.
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Store the art in a safe location until it can be unloaded. It’s OK for the robber to admire the work for a night—they can even hang the paintings on their own wall to see how they look! To avoid suspicion, though, it’s best to hide them somewhere else, away from home. Something like an old barn is perfect. They can just climb up to the loft and store the paintings in a discreet wooden box for safekeeping, then cover the box with hay to make it blend in.
- Congratulations to the team! They’ve successfully pulled off an art heist. Now, all they have to do is wait to arrange a sale with their fence. Unless their wild card ratted them out, that is…
- While it’s fun to fantasize about pulling off the perfect heist, we definitely don’t recommend actually going through with this. If you follow these steps, you’ll get caught, and nobody wants that!

Section 3 of 4:

See How to (Possibly) Get Away With It on MUBI

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Catch THE MASTERMIND premiere, now streaming exclusively on MUBI, to learn how to cover your thieving tracks. You’ve successfully stashed the goods, but now the cops are onto you. So, how do you make sure you don’t get caught? Well, it helps to watch one wannabe thief go for it first (whether they succeed or monumentally fail). And you can do that now on MUBI. MUBI is a curated streaming service—a place to discover beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema from all over the globe, from all kinds of directors. From brand new works by emerging filmmakers to modern masterpieces by today's greatest icons, like Kelly Reichardt’s THE MASTERMIND, there’s always something special to watch
- All films are carefully chosen by MUBI’s curators. MUBI also produces and distributes ambitious new films, which members can watch exclusively on the platform.
- Get a whole month of MUBI to stream THE MASTERMIND and much more HERE.

Section 4 of 4:

Famous Real Life Art Heists

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1
Theft of the Mona Lisa (1911) TheMona Lisa is a famous masterpiece today, but it wasn’t always one. Its fame changed forever on August 21, 1911, after three Italian handymen hid in a supply closet overnight at the Louvre and sprinted away with the painting just in time to catch a 7:47 a.m. train out of Paris. One of the thieves, Vincenzo Perugia, had worked as an installer at the Louvre and knew how to disassemble the protective casing over the Mona Lisa. The painting was so little known at the time that it took 28 hours for anyone to notice that it was missing!^{[1]
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- News of the theft made headlines around the world, with French detectives suspecting figures as notable as J.P. Morgan and Pablo Picasso as culprits or masterminds.
- The painting became too recognizable to sell, so Perugia hid it for 28 months before attempting to make a sale.
- The art dealer he met with was suspicious and reported Perugia to the police. He was arrested and sentenced to just 8 months in prison, and the Mona Lisa was returned to the museum.
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Theft of The Scream (1994) On February 12, 1994 (the opening day of the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer), two thieves broke through a window in Norway’s National Gallery in Oslo and made off with Edvard Munch’s most famous painting, The Scream. The wire that held the painting to the wall had been cut, and the robbers left behind a note saying “Thousand thanks for the bad security!”^{[2]
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- Pieces of the frame were found in the suburb of Nittedal, along with a cryptic message that the thieves wanted to discuss a ransom. Several other false ransom demands were made by other groups and people, but the Norwegian government refused to pay them due to a lack of proof that the demands were genuine.
- Eventually, a sting operation led by British and Norwegian police led to the painting’s recovery. British police detective Charles Hill, an art theft expert, posed as a potential buyer to lure in the thieves.
- The Scream was returned to the National Gallery on May 7, 1994.
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Mass theft at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum (1990) Early in the morning on March 18, 1990, two men in police uniforms rang the intercom at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, claiming they were responding to a disturbance. The security guard on duty ignored protocol and let them in through the employee entrance. He and another guard were led to the basement where they were restrained. The thieves then raided the museum and left at 2:45 a.m. with 13 works that have not been recovered to this day.^{[3]
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Research source} The stolen works include:
- Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady in Gentlemen in Black
- Vermeer’s Concert
- Flinck’s Landscape with an Obelisk
- An ancient Chinese bronze gu (breaker)
- A small self-portrait sketch by Rembrandt
- Five works by Degas
- A bronze eagle finial
- Manet’s Chez Tortoni
- Have info on the case? Contact the Museum’s security director at reward@isgm.org (confidentiality is assured).
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Heist at Mexico’s National Museum of Anthropology (1985) On December 25, 1985, two 21-year-old veterinary students broke into the National Museum of Anthropology in Mexico City and stole 124 archaeological pieces from exhibits featuring the Maya, Mixteca, and Mexica civilizations. The students staked out the museum for months, then entered the building through air conditioning ducts on Christmas Eve. They raided the museum for 3 hours while the security officers, who were supposed to be patrolling the building, were celebrating Christmas.^{[4]
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- An investigation by Mexican authorities yielded no results until 1989, when police arrested notorious drug trafficker El Cabo, who confessed he knew the whereabouts of the stolen artifacts. One of the thieves, Carlos Perches, had been trying to sell the artifacts to drug dealers, and El Cabo had heard about him.
- 111 of the 124 artifacts were recovered at the home of Perches’ parents. Seven pieces still remain with his accomplice Ramón Sardina, two were exchanged for cocaine, and four were never located.
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Theft from Sir Alfred Lane Beit (1974) Not all art heists happen at a museum! In 1974, British heiress-turned-revolutionary Rose Dugdale orchestrated a heist from the home of Sir Alfred Lane Beit and his wife, Lady Clementine Beit in County Wicklow, Ireland. Dugdale had grown up in the British aristocracy, but disliked the excessive wealth and poor treatment of the Irish people that her peers reveled in. She defected to support the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and helped plan the Beit heist to fund their operations.^{[5]
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- On the evening of April 26, 1974, she rang the staff entrance at the Beits’ mansion and pretended to be a French woman who needed help with her car. Three masked men with assault rifles entered the home after her, then tied up the Beits and their staff in the library.
- Dugdale’s crew made off with 19 works of art valuing £8 million (around $110 million today), including paintings by Goya, Rubens, Velázquez, and Vermeer.
- Dugdale was arrested on May 4 for the heist and entered a plea deal in court, proclaiming she was “proudly and incorruptibly guilty.” She’s currently known as the only woman to pull off a major art heist.
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Jewel theft from the Louvre (2025) Think art museum heists are a thing of the past? Think again! On October 19, 2025, a team of 4 thieves parked a cherry picker next to the Louvre and entered the Apollo Gallery through a second-story window. The crew stole 9 pieces of jewelry from the showcases, including the crown of Empress Eugénie, wife of Napoleon III. The entire operation lasted about 7 minutes and took place in broad daylight.^{[6]
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- Empress Eugénie’s crown was found damaged outside the museum, but the remaining pieces are yet to be recovered.
- As of October 28, 2025, two suspects have been arrested in connection with the crime.