On August 27, 2003, two men posing as tourists assaulted their tour guide with an axe. While we have several questions, as least five of which are "Why in the hell did you let them bring an axe into a museum?" information on the little details like that are hard to come by. At any rate, the plan worked because, you know, why in the hell wouldn't it? There just aren't that many paintings people are willing to take an axe to the head for. The thieves escaped with Da Vinci's "Madonna of the Yarnwinder" through a back window, only being captured after an investigation that eventually cost taxpayers $1.5 million. That's a high price to pay to defeat a crime committed with just an axe.
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Thieves Steal a Fortune Using Fake Mustaches
![4 Shockingly Simple Art Heists That Actually Worked]()
On March 18, 1990, two men approached the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston, Massachusetts, dressed as police officers and sporting fake mustaches. Eager to begin early production of The Town 2: Jesus, Boston, the "officers" informed the guard that there was a warrant out for his arrest, and persuaded him to lure the only other guard on duty to them before locking this security tour de force in the basement.
The two thieves, unimpeded by guards or a reliable security system, proceeded to take 13 paintings worth an estimated $200 million. The whereabouts of the paintings are currently unknown, pending the results of the next installment in Nicolas Cage's beloved National Treasure franchise.
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