We Donât Know How Much Art Has Gone Missing From Museums Museums are doing a better job of accounting for missing inventory than years ago, when they would sometimes not report thefts out of embarrassment and fear of exposing security weaknesses. A Louvre warehouse in Lens, France. The Louvre recently recovered two pieces of 16th-century armor that were stolen in 1983.Credit...Dmitry Kostyukov for The New York Times Should museums tell the public about missing art? Two pieces of gold and silver-encrusted Italian Renaissance armor, which had been stolen from the Louvre in 1983 and found this year in a familyâs private collection in France, were discovered the way stolen art often is: An expert crosschecked the items against an online database of lost and stolen art.