India, Nov. 21 -- For the nation. When Vincenzo Peruggia stole the Mona Lisa from the Louvre in 1911, he was considered a thief in France, but a patriot in Italy. He slipped in, dressed as a museum employee, took the frame off the wall, lugged it into a stairwell, extracted the canvas, hid it under his white smock and slipped out. The theft is what catapulted da Vinci's work to global fame. When he was caught two years later, he claimed he intended to return it to Italy.

For the opportunity. In 2003, unidentified thieves stole priceless works by Pablo Picasso, Paul Gauguin and Vincent Van Gogh from UK's Whitworth Art Gallery. Then, they left them in a nearby public toilet with the message, "The intention was not to steal, only to highlig...