THE HAGUE: Major art thefts around the world over the past decade, after seven masterpieces were stolen from a Dutch museum:

— Oct 16, 2012: Seven masterpieces, including priceless works by Picasso, Matisse, Monet and Gauguin, are stolen in a night heist at Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum.

— Aug 21, 2010: Van Gogh’s “Poppy Flowers”, worth $55 million, is stolen from Cairo’s Mahmoud Khalil museum after it is cut out of its frame. It has yet to be found.

— May 20, 2010: A lone thief steals works by Matisse, Picasso and three other modern masters from a Paris gallery as it emerges an alarm was out of order at the time of the $120 million heist. The works are still missing.

— Feb 10, 2008: Four paintings by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet valued at more than 112 million euros are stolen from a Zurich museum in Switzerland. The Van Gogh and the Monet are later recovered; the other two have not been found.

— Aug 5, 2007: Two Bruegels, a Sisley and a Monet, all considered priceless, are stolen from the Jules Cheret museum in Nice, France. They are recovered the following year. In December 2011, a French court convicts five men arrested in an FBI sting and sentences them to between two and nine years.

— 25 Feb, 2006: Works by Salvador Dali, Picasso, Matisse and Monet are taken from the Chacara do Ceu museum during the annual carnival celebrations in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They have not been recovered.

— Aug 22, 2004: Edvard Munch’s masterpieces “The Scream” and “Madonna”, valued at 100 million dollars in total, are stolen from an Oslo museum. They are recovered damaged in 2006.

— Dec 7, 2002: Two Van Goghs, valued at several million dollars, are stolen from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam. Although two men were arrested and charged over the theft, the pictures have so far not been found.—AFP