I'm not an expert in stolen artwork, but what I've been told by someone I know on legal side of the art business is that the Hollywood myth of billionaires owning and admiring their illicit stash of stolen artwork is just that - a myth with no evidence backing it up.

I don't know the first thing about illicit billionaire art stashes but I never equate "no evidence" with "didn't happen."

Which painting sold for $200 million? Sunflowers? We had a silly, hypothetical discussion about what the Mona Lisa would sell for if it was currently in a private collection. Thoughts on that, Gene?

I thought the same thing about the middle eastern investors, with money to burn. With a floor price of a billion dollars, that would be one hell of an autction. Probably the most expensive man made object ever, sans buildings, and even then, there's not a lot of billion dollar structures out there. Oh, did you ever find the cover to gijoe 21?

I would echo Gene's sentiments about the Gardner Heist book. Living in Boston and working down the street from the museum, the story behind the heist strikes home. It was a clever cunningly executed robbery and there have been ZERO significant strides in locating these pieces. From wiki:
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The largest art theft in world history occurred in Boston on March 18, 1990 when thieves stole 13 pieces, collectively worth $300 million, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A reward of $5,000,000 is still offered for information leading to their return.

The pieces stolen were: Vermeer's The Concert, which is the most valuable stolen painting in the world; two Rembrandt paintings, The Storm on the Sea of Galilee (his only known seascape) and Portrait of a Lady and Gentleman in Black; A Rembrandt self-portrait etching; Manet's Chez Tortoni; five drawings by Edgar Degas; Govaert Flinck's Landscape with an Obelisk; an ancient Chinese Qu; and a finial that once stood atop a flag from Napoleon's Army.

Yeah, such a sale could get pretty interesting - just from all the publicity and marketing potential, one could justify perhaps a price of a couple/several billion dollars if it were a government-backed institution trying to procure it, far beyond the value of just the art itself.

I never found the Joe #21 cover - while it would be nice to have, for this issue, it's really the interiors that everyone remembers more than the cover.

Yeah, such a sale could get pretty interesting - just from all the publicity and marketing potential, one could justify perhaps a price of a couple/several billion dollars if it were a government-backed institution trying to procure it, far beyond the value of just the art itself.

I never found the Joe #21 cover - while it would be nice to have, for this issue, it's really the interiors that everyone remembers more than the cover.

Funny thing about the Mona Lisa...it is quite small. I know it sounds strange but that was my exact reaction when I saw it at the Louvre. It is very interesting to stare at the original, it looks different from every angle. It has a wall of its own in the Denon wing of the Louvre, and is definitely worth seeing.