FBI unveils 10 most wanted missing masterpieces

TWO Vincent Van Gogh paintings and works by Paul Cezanne and Leonardo da Vinci are among paintings worth €525 million that have made it on to an FBI most wanted list.

Investigators have unveiled the world's Top 10 art heists in an attempt to enlist public help in solving the crimes. Pictures of the famous works have been posted on the FBI's website, which urges the public to "be on the lookout" for the masterpieces, as opposed to dangerous criminals or missing people.

Chris Swecker, FBI assistant director, said: "What is notable with these thefts is their value to world cultural heritage.

"Theft of cultural property, no matter where in the world, impoverishes us all."

The 10 stolen works are estimated to represent a combined loss of up to €575 million.

The list includes Edvard Munch's The Scream, stolen from a museum in Oslo last year, and up to 10,000 looted and stolen Iraqi artefacts.

The Van Gogh works - Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen, valued at £17.5 million in total - were stolen from the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002.

Also featured are Caravaggio's Nativity with San Lorenzo and San Francisco, Cezanne's View of Auvers-sur-Oise and Da Vinci's Madonna of the Yarnwinder.

Three paintings that have already been recovered are included, apparently to highlight the bureau's success rate - two by Pierre-Auguste Renoir and a self-portrait by Rembrandt van Rijn.

The FBI Art Crime Team, a group of eight dedicated agents, said art theft had become a thriving industry with losses of up to €5 billion a year.

But it said such works were considered priceless in terms of cultural value.

Mr Swecker added: "Objects of art and cultural heritage enhance all our lives, and represent a legacy of history and art for future generations.

"Disseminating information about these crimes through the website will bring them to the attention of the broadest possible public."