Heists at museums have been brilliantly shown by both Bollywood and Hollywood movies. While we praise its portrayal on the silver screen, the act is not so praiseworthy in real life. Artefacts put on display in the museum shows the country or the region's rich culture and history. It is a heritage we preserve for future generations to come. However, museum heists have become quite common these days. And the situation has been the same earlier too, only the techniques used were different. Among the latest museum thefts in India was the one at Hyderabad's Nizam Museum that was reported on Monday.

Unidentified people stole valuables such as a tiffin box, tea saucer, and a spoon made of gold. Police have launched search operation against suspects who trespassed the nearly two decades ago museum and stole valuables. Nizam's Museum or H.E.H Nizam's Museum located in Hyderabad at Purani Haveli is where the erstwhile Nizams resided. It has a repository of souvenirs and similar things gifted to the last Nizam of Hyderabad state, Mir Osman Ali Khan Asaf Jah VII, on account of his silver jubilee celebrations in 1936.

Here are five of the biggest museum robbery in the history:

1. The Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in The United States

Date: March 18, 1990

Two thieves disguised as Boston Police entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. They told the guards on duty that they were responding to a disturbance and handcuffed them. After duct taping their hands and feet to pipes, the two men, stole art valuing USD 500 million which is the largest in the art thefts in history. The theft was done in an hour's time. Among things stolen included Vermeer’s The Concert, Rembrandt's Storm on the Sea of Galilee, and Manet's Chez Tortoni. Tourists currently visit the museum to see the crime scene where only empty frames hang from the walls.

2. Louvre Museum, Paris, France

Date: August 21, 1911

The famous art and artist of all times-Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. While she gracefully stands in France's Louvre Museum today, the 16th-century painting has had tough pasts. In fact, it was a theft that made Mona Lisa even more popular. Vincenzo Peruggia, a handyman who fixed the protective glass on the painting hid in the supply closet of the museum on August 21, 1911. The next day, the news of its theft made to the front page of newspapers in 1911.

However, as karma you may call it, the thief could not sell the painting as its popularity simply soared after the event. He hid it in the bottom of a trunk and tried his luck two years later, but got caught. So, in the end, Perugia was arrested and the painting was returned to its original place.

3. Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery

Date: September 4, 1972, and

The museum has been robbed multiple times, in 1972 and 2011. An unidentified person stole two small stone sculptures that were displayed without protective cases in September 2011. One among the stolen things were a 2,500-year-old sandstone carving worth USD one million. However, it was retrieved from an unsuspecting yoga instructor who had bought it for USD 1000. The other sculptures are still missing. Another theft happened during 1972 when armed robbers entered the museum dramatically through a skylight. They tied up three guards and took away 50 artworks of which 18 were famous paintings.

4. The Stockholm Museum, Sweden

Date: December 22, 2000

Armed thieves entered The Stockholm Museum in Sweden and stole USD30 million worth of art by Renoir and Rembrandt On December 22, 2000. To distract the security officials' attention, they staged two car explosions nearby following which a gunman entered the museum and took away a self-portrait by Rembrandt and two small paintings by Renoir. They escaped a speedboat parked next to the museum in a canal. The estimated value of the three paintings was USD 45 million.

The paintings were recovered from different places later. One painting was found by the Stockholm police while FBI agents investigating a Eurasian crime syndicate helped find the remaining ones. The last painting was found in Los Angeles after an agent posed as an art buyer in a Copenhagen hotel.

5. Kunsthal Museum Netherlands

Date: October 26, 2012

Seven paintings of the world famous artist including Picasso, Matisse, Gaugin and Monet were stolen from Kunstahl Museum in the Netherlands on October 26, 2012. The burglars stole the paintings in under three minutes worth more than USD 24 million. The thieves managed to escape even after accidentally setting its alarm system on.

In 2013, mother of one of the alleged thieves is claimed to have burned the paintings to save her son from being held. The woman initially buried it in different locations but later burned it as her son was the ringleader and his group members had already been arrested.

6. National Museum of Anthropology, Mexico

Date: December 25, 1985

Robbers took away 140 artworks of Mayan and Aztec art from the National Museum of Anthropology on December 25, 1985. They quite smartly chose the eve of Christmas as it is a holiday season. It is said that the thieves quite easily opened seven glass display cases and took away things of pre-Columbian art. The museum that day lost several objects of gold, turquoise, and jade objects. The stolen material also included an obsidian monkey-shaped-vase worth over USD 20 million.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Sep 04, 2018 05:29 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).