The 1983 Budapest Museum Heist: Seven Masterpieces Stolen by an Italian Gang

On November 5, 1983, seven Renaissance masterpieces worth $28 million were stolen from the Museum of Fine Arts in Budapest. The thieves, a group of five Italian men from Reggio Emilia, entered through a window using scaffolding. The haul included two Raphaels, two Tiepolos, two Tintorettos, and a Giorgione. The heist was orchestrated by Ivano Scianti, who had scouted the museum and noted guard patrols. The paintings were smuggled to Greece and handed to intermediaries in Itéa for a bag of cash and traveler's checks. The mastermind was believed to be Efthymios Moskachlaidis, a Greek olive oil millionaire who may have intended to gift the works to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceaușescu. The gang was caught after a girlfriend tipped off police, and fingerprints on a screwdriver left at the scene led to Giordano Incerti. Most paintings were recovered within a year: the Raphael Portrait of a Young Man was found buried near Budapest, and the others in a suitcase at a Greek monastery. Trials in Hungary and Italy resulted in sentences ranging from months to years. Graziano Iori was killed in 1992 in a mafia-style execution. The case remains partly unsolved.