Former FBI Special Agent and member of the original FBI elite Art Crime Team Geoffrey Kelly joins WIRED to answer the internet’s burning heist questions. How do you rob The Louvre in broad daylight? Is it true that Picasso once stole the Mona Lisa? Why don’t people do bank heists anymore? Answers to these questions and many more await on Heist Support.
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#Spy #Heist #Crime
00:00 – Heist Support
00:11 – Frickin’ laser beams.
00:56 – Living rent-free in a federal database
01:18 – Mona Less-a by Lenny da Vinky
02:46 – Ben Affleck did his research
03:40 – Hang it in the Louvre
04:58 – For the culture, one masterpiece at a time
06:24 – Now you see me: now you don’t
07:13 – The perfect heist
08:23 – Ocean’s 11, but make it believable
09:01 – Picasso stole the Mona Lisa?
09:59 – Underground banking
10:48 – $150M hiding in plain sight
11:49 – Priceless ❌ Worthless ✅
13:27 – Pose for the archives
15:26 – $1 BILLION with a 🅱️
17:28 – Bank heists are so 90s
18:01 – Learning to be a criminal
19:43 – Curated by Monet, framed by Goering, seized by the FBI
21:28 – Mint condition, questionable acquisition
22:02 – Funded by grand larceny
23:09 – I got loyalty, got royalty, got digital trails inside my DNA
24:11 – Lukewarm on the trail
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@BoosieBraun-q5s
July 28, 2026 at 2:58 pm
10:12 isn’t it Jason stay-tham and not Jason st-ah-tham becsause I been pronouncing it Jason stay-tham
@spoinkenjoyer
July 28, 2026 at 3:17 pm
Wikipedia says you’re pronouncing it correctly.
@starlavasil9330
July 28, 2026 at 3:14 pm
stephane breitweiser is the definition of the gentlemen’s burglar – stole an estimated $2 BILLION worth of art all across europe and kept it all displayed in him and his wife’s attic bedroom. he loved art so much that it made him go klepto! there is a GREAT book about him called “the art thief” that reveals how he was able to do it without getting caught for so long
@carinbarbanel9356
July 28, 2026 at 6:29 pm
Yea but his mother destroyed all of it, terrifying loss to culture
@ΣτελιοςΠεππας
July 28, 2026 at 6:38 pm
This is the kind of case that makes me want to reinstate hangings as a punishment.
@andriusdiaz
July 28, 2026 at 3:43 pm
Let me guess They’re gonna blame Trump for something.
@One_True_God_Leith
July 28, 2026 at 3:51 pm
Why would Trump come up at all? His crimes don’t include things like burglary or breaking and entering.
@Dayvit78
July 28, 2026 at 8:08 pm
Tds much?
@SchlawinerUSA
July 28, 2026 at 3:43 pm
Meanwhile in Germany, Gelsenkirchen, they drilled through Walls into the Bank out of a parkgarage Next to the Bank 😂 in 2026
@juliastucky615
July 28, 2026 at 3:50 pm
Is this guy the real life Peter Burke?
@mbgal7758
July 28, 2026 at 3:56 pm
I would think a lot of these high end thefts may already have a buyer in place before they even plan the theft. Like some Chinese billionaire wants some piece of jewelry or art and they contact a thief to do the job
@thehomeschoolinglibrarian
July 28, 2026 at 5:27 pm
I agree. Few art thieves these days are going to just go steal art. These thieves are going to be hired by wealthy men in Russia, the Middle East, Asia and maybe even parts of Africa and South America.
@wpdoyle
July 28, 2026 at 8:37 pm
@thehomeschoolinglibrarianIf that’s true, where’s your evidence?
@trusty7542
July 28, 2026 at 4:01 pm
10:12 “Jason Stratham” ? Never heard of him 🤣
@hotdogs4h
July 28, 2026 at 6:34 pm
He was in the Tansporter movies
@elianabeebe7494
July 28, 2026 at 4:11 pm
If anyone is interested in the process of determining the history of a piece, check out baumgartner restoration! He does some great explanations in his video
@jdawg218
July 28, 2026 at 5:53 pm
Implement dei
@racheldarnell8645
July 28, 2026 at 6:26 pm
10:27 It literally happened in Germany this year. Someone or someones went through I think a parking garage wall into a bank’s safety deposit room. I think it was a Sparkasse.
@jadyassine8484
July 28, 2026 at 6:29 pm
For anyone curious, the Gardner museum has kept the frames of the stolen artwork on the walls. All you see are the frames; it’s quite the sight.
@taren1d
July 28, 2026 at 6:48 pm
11:03 where my mystery files fans at ?!?
@Holmes-w1r
July 28, 2026 at 7:19 pm
waw
@ashley9534
July 28, 2026 at 7:20 pm
Criminals are gonna love this video
@johndoe3328
July 28, 2026 at 7:22 pm
What percentage of bank robbers get away with it?
@Dayvit78
July 28, 2026 at 8:06 pm
Used to be alot. Now it’s almost none.
@anyankafan
July 28, 2026 at 7:32 pm
I mean, Catherine Zeta Jones only practiced with visible lasers. During the actual heist they were invisible…
@johnpooley3
July 28, 2026 at 7:39 pm
Bruh the isabella stewart gardner heist was never solved
@wpdoyle
July 28, 2026 at 8:35 pm
That’s half true. They know who did it but the works are still missing.
@Yourmission9
July 28, 2026 at 8:10 pm
Great episode.
@exactlyexactly
July 28, 2026 at 8:12 pm
Stop platforming pigs
@BubbleGumzKorner
July 28, 2026 at 8:33 pm
Plenty of RICH rich people absolutely want to purchase stolen art.
Ask the people that bought the Gardner Museum paintings for their private collections
@TotysGarage89
July 28, 2026 at 8:38 pm
“a failed artist in his own Reich”
@nuevarine
July 28, 2026 at 8:47 pm
This pro-AI surveillance tech is not going to be used ethically and we all know it.
@EmmaElizabethX
July 28, 2026 at 8:53 pm
Really enjoyed this! But makes me more frustrated that a family member’s murder was made a cold case after a few years while art is always still open. Guess it depends on who investigates.
@shushyeah
July 28, 2026 at 9:20 pm
The biggest looters in Iraq were the US MILITARY!!!
@torenatkinson5708
July 28, 2026 at 9:25 pm
10:03 also Larceny, Inc(1942), also Ladykillers (both versions?)
@Zurich_for_Beginners
July 29, 2026 at 10:16 am
10:00 They just did it a few weeks ago in Germany.
@AlexJohnston-m6i
July 29, 2026 at 10:18 am
I think its a fair bet to assume that anyone willing to buy heisted art is more interested in the person doing the heisting than owning heisted art
@TheGentGaming
July 29, 2026 at 10:27 am
So Ali G was legit when he lit up a doob and smoked the room out to see the invisible lasers? Cool.
@eeby_deeby666
July 29, 2026 at 11:03 am
11:50 stealing the Liza and putting it up on ebay
@AndyHoward
July 29, 2026 at 11:27 am
One prolific art thief was Herman Goering. He had many many pieces of stolen artwork
@AThicccPenny
July 29, 2026 at 11:40 am
he aint lying about the FBI showing up to ask questions, i had a friend when i was still in school that made a school shooter joke in discord and the FBI showed up to his house in the middle of the night lmao
@matthewjuhlin4628
July 29, 2026 at 11:44 am
“How to disable security cameras?” Just move very slowly… like Mythbusters did
@matthewjuhlin4628
July 29, 2026 at 11:56 am
“You don’t see bank robberies any more.” Because the Chinese, North Koreans, and eastern Europeans make billions off “your grandson is in jail” scams.
@DCfromtheV
July 29, 2026 at 12:32 pm
All private businesses and entities should be responsible for 100% of their own security. Tax payers paying a guy like this to search for art thieves for 22 years is a massive waste of funding. This job should not exist. Between this sort of thing and rich people evading taxes so effectively, it’s no wonder we are in trillions of dollars of debt and the whole country is propped up by the lower and middle class workers. Make it make sense.
@TheNN
July 29, 2026 at 12:58 pm
*”Ex-“*
Funniest thing I ever read.
@shaliseshaw9385
July 29, 2026 at 1:00 pm
00:29 If museums did have visible laser security systems, thieves would be failing to commit museum robberies when they set off all of the booby traps in the museums, police would show up to arrest the thieves, etc. 🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓
@shaliseshaw9385
July 29, 2026 at 1:02 pm
2:53 Art museums need tighter security so thieves won’t break into the museums to steal paintings, history exhibit items, etc. 🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓
@shaliseshaw9385
July 29, 2026 at 1:05 pm
3:48 The Louvre needs security alarms, steel door security systems, police robots, etc. so The Louvre won’t be robbed again. 🚓🚓🚓🚓🚓🏪🏪🏪🏪🏪🏪
@Tiuthoutthere-c3po
July 29, 2026 at 1:16 pm
What is learn something that priceless because worthless when stolen
@ndcasituation-u5m
July 29, 2026 at 1:33 pm
One of my least favorite of this series. The dude hardly answered any of the questions properly. I don’t know if it was intentional, but it’s like he was answering things he made up in his head instead of addressing what the users were asking.
@thismortalboy
July 29, 2026 at 2:12 pm
I’ve been wanting to say this for years. your intro song is dope but oh man that snare drum is clipping so bad. As a musician myself who records music it always drove me insane hearing that snare drum clip. Please fix it ! 😆
@joeledger
July 29, 2026 at 2:46 pm
So auctioning priceless artwork is money laundering
@nathanledden3892
July 29, 2026 at 6:21 pm
who is Jason Stratham?
@JW_Steed
July 29, 2026 at 6:27 pm
Bring him back to go through a couple of Leverage episodes and rate them for realism.
@StarlahMutiny
July 29, 2026 at 7:25 pm
OMFG OMFG MY SPECIAL INTEREST AS A SUPPORT OMG OMG IMG
@madamimadamimadam
July 29, 2026 at 7:31 pm
0:26
CATHERINE ZETA JO-OOOOOOOOONES
@smorgasbord42
July 29, 2026 at 7:43 pm
Isabella Gardner museum heist has got to be one of the most successful, not the one where they caught the guy. We still don’t know where the art actually is.
@KevinKickChannel
July 29, 2026 at 8:05 pm
GTA Online Kortz heist tuturial
@Ddposte
July 29, 2026 at 8:19 pm
Would love more episodes with Mr.Kelly. Very entertaining
@KevinWendigo63
July 29, 2026 at 9:41 pm
USA time-limiting crimes is stupid. Canada doesn’t. (Canada DOES have statue of limitations for civil actions – 1 year or 7 years.)🍁🍁
@enzo478784
July 29, 2026 at 9:45 pm
@louvremuseum better watch this video! 😂😂😂
@coreymartin6363
July 29, 2026 at 10:33 pm
Be careful, crooks. You can run left, right, or even split up, and the FBI director will still have his eyes on you.
@shannon890
July 29, 2026 at 10:54 pm
Everyone should watch the monuments men
@PusGrubbly
July 29, 2026 at 10:56 pm
Okay…so why wouldn’t an art thief just wait a couple weeks – the cops have nothing, then contact the museum through Tor and offer to reurn the piece in exchange for the 10% or 20% ‘reward for information’ plus a written official guarantee of nonprosecution? Seems obvious that if the officials were reluctant to agree to nonprosecution, the museum’s owners would pressure them into it.
@monikaalee9083
July 29, 2026 at 11:54 pm
I chuckled at that modest fee.
@greedybat6123
July 30, 2026 at 2:28 am
The way he’s happy and excited that security cameras trained with ai watch our every move and log what we’re all doing in public constantly as though that’s not a total nightmare
@saltycrunch
July 30, 2026 at 2:18 pm
…in an art museum.
@greedybat6123
July 30, 2026 at 2:21 pm
@saltycrunch I don’t particularly want any computer to decide what i’m doing is suspicious via a privatized algorithym by scanning my face against my will but i hope that boot tastes really good
@saltycrunch
July 30, 2026 at 4:26 pm
@greedybat6123 why do you online warriors all end up sounding so aggressive immediately? Is this really the way to get people on your side?
@becauseimbatman0
July 30, 2026 at 5:39 am
Imagine getting away with diamonds worth a hundred million or what it was and then getting caught because you didn’t bother to clean up any kind of evidence
@aritreesengupta7566
July 30, 2026 at 7:05 am
At this point, the Wired team has insane contacts who can probably cumulatively turn the world upside down 🖐️
@mulemule
July 30, 2026 at 8:22 am
How genuinely motivated do you think museums are to DEauthenticate a painting they spent millions on (or attracts 100’s visitors)?
@youngthomasyorke4074
July 30, 2026 at 2:10 pm
It’s usually determined fake by an external auditor, and the museum loses their rep if they don’t follow up. Once it’s out in the open they can’t really pretend nothing happened. Usually they keep it and say “formerly attributed to”. Also if it’s a painting over $1M it’s pretty rare there would be such an oversight. A rare example would be the Cleveland museum Grunewald.
@mulemule
July 30, 2026 at 2:21 pm
@youngthomasyorke4074 TY.
In a documentary Re: the “Salvator Mundi,” an art & forgery expert estimated that over half of the collections in the great museums are _fakes._ (And when I say “over half,” I’m being conservative.) 😳
@gregnoname3707
July 30, 2026 at 10:50 am
Interesting guy and an interesting topic. I also really appreciate that he didn’t somehow try to make it political like most of these question video presenters.
@thendcomes
July 30, 2026 at 11:50 am
This guy says provenance funny
@Ocmaya
July 30, 2026 at 12:12 pm
Arszen Loopen yeah that guy
@6877EMA
July 30, 2026 at 1:35 pm
Really difficult to move a stolen piece of art, however shady powerful people somehow end up with palaces, exotic pets, weapons… So,
@santisageorge4154
July 30, 2026 at 1:57 pm
Is the FBI freemasonry or different
@MustardLadySaveMe
July 30, 2026 at 7:12 pm
My controversial opinion is if someone is able to steal something in an elaborate heist that is able to fool modern security protocols and technology, There should be a countdown that starts for 5 years. After the 5 years is up, if they haven’t gotten caught, they have 30 days to come forward to explain exactly how they did it and how they got away with it. After that, they get to keep the equivalent of 50% worth of the value of what they stole. (the fair market value will be calculated using existing market conditions of the day before the statute of limitations expires. All parties claiming to participate will have to unanimously agree that they are the parties involved and if there are multiple parties, they must agree to split the value equally amongst all participating parties.)
If they do not come forward within the 30-day allotment period, The grace window expires and if they are caught after that point, they will be prosecuted to the full extent of the law.
@teoteo-s197
July 30, 2026 at 8:44 pm
Fun fact is that motion sensors detect differences in temperature as radiant heat, but there’s a cutoff built into the circuitry to stop false positives. So if you move slowly enough, you won’t set those off. Alternatively, simply getting the room temperature up to around 98.6 (F) will also defeat them.