Over the centuries, famous paintings, sculptures, and objects -- worth up to millions of dollars each -- have been spirited out of museums in the dark of night or under the nose of guards and visitors in broad daylight. Masterpieces have been taken with stealth and cunning by master thieves and, in some cases, by bumbling crooks or janitors, leaving empty frames behind. Many works have been recovered years and decades after their theft. Some works have been stolen multiple times. Others have vanished; with legends of their use by the mafia or Irish Republican Army as collateral for drugs and arms. Famous works are rumored to be in the vaults or secret private galleries of billionaire collectors.  The list of unrecovered works is long and can fill its own "Museum of the Missing.”

Registration deadline: Oct. 15