Stolen Art Gallery: Virtual Museum of Stolen Masterpieces

Brazilian digital technology company Compass UOL has launched Stolen Art Gallery, a virtual reality app that recreates a museum of five stolen masterpieces. Available on iOS, Android, and Oculus Quest, the app features works by Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Manet, Cézanne, and van Gogh, including Caravaggio's Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence stolen in 1969 from the Oratory of St. Lawrence in Palermo, and Rembrandt's Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee stolen from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in 1990. Users can access audio descriptions and use Meta Quest VR headsets for a more immersive experience. CEO and co-founder Alexis Rockenbach explained the minimalist dark space design focuses attention on the artworks. The company plans to add more stolen pieces in the future. In 2018, another app, Hacking the Heist by Boston-based startup Cuseum, used augmented reality to virtually restore stolen paintings to their original frames at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, where 13 works by Rembrandt, Degas, Manet, and Vermeer were stolen in March 1990 and never recovered by the FBI.