updated February 9 2018
Banksy is an England-based graffiti artist, political activist and film director of unverified identity.
Edward Hopper (1882 –1967) was a prominent American realist painter. His urban and rural scenes reflected his personal vision of modern American life.
Norman Rockwell (1894 –1978) was an American painter and illustrator. His works enjoy a broad popular appeal in the United States for their reflection of American culture.
Johannes Vermeer (1632 –1675) was a Dutch painter who specialized in domestic interior scenes of middle-class life.
William Sidney Mount (1807 – 1868) was an American painter best known for his genre paintings, although he also painted landscapes and portraits. He was a contemporary of the Hudson River School.
Joseph Mallord William Turner
1775 - 1851
Turner is perhaps the best-loved English Romantic artist. He became known as 'the painter of light', because of his increasing interest in brilliant colours as the main constituent in his landscapes and seascapes. His works include water colours, oils and engravings.
Turner masterpiece sells for record £30m (= millions)
The sale of a Turner masterpiece, one of the last in private hands, has set a world auction record for the artist. (auction = vente aux enchères)
Sotheby's auctioneers said a buyer on the phone paid £30.3m to beat three others to the painting Rome, From Mount Aventine.Turner exhibited the work at London's Royal Academy in 1836 when he was 61.
The sale price, including a buyer's premium, was also the highest ever paid for a pre-20th Century British artist, a Sotheby's spokeswoman said.
Other paintings by William Turner
The 92cm by 125cm (36in by 50in) canvas was based on Turner's own drawings of the city he made in 1828. It was commissioned by the artist's friend and patron, Hugh Andrew Johnstone Munro.
Before this sale it had only changed hands once, in 1878 when the Fifth Earl of Rosebery bought it from Munro's collection on his death.
The 10 most-wanted missing or stolen paintings
Disappeared in: 1988
Reward offered: 300,000 German Marks (£132,000)
The disappearance of Lucian Freud's portrait of Francis Bacon was unusual. For 25 years there have been no rumours or information about its location, whereas criminal gangs usually await a ransom before dropping hints. Freud designed his own 'wanted' poster for the stolen image, but even this didn't elicit a response.
Instead, the portrait is thought to have been taken from Berlin's Neue Nationalgalerie by a Bacon fan or student, as the gallery was full of students at the time.
Disappeared in: 1990
Reward offered: £3.2 million
The Storm of the Sea of Galilee was one of the 13 artworks taken from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in America's biggest art theft. More than 20 years later, the FBI's investigation into the crime is still open, with
a $5 million reward on offer for information leading to finding the paintings in good condition. A pair of thieves stole the art after posing as police officers and museum guards allowed them entry. They managed to handcuff both guards on duty and trapped them in the basement while they robbed the gallery.
Disappeared in: 2010
Reward offered: Undisclosed
Unfortunately, it's fairly conclusive that this Picasso is unlikely to re-emerge. Shortly after it was stolen from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the thief threw it in a bin which was emptied before authorities learned of its contents. If the painting hasn't been destroyed, it has a very wealthy owner out there somewhere – the painting is worth more than £20 million at auction.
Disappeared in: October 2012
Reward offered: Undisclosed
This 1971 piece by Picasso was taken in the aforementioned Dutch Kunsthal Gallery theft. It is not yet clear if the remains of the paintings have been found in the ashes.
Disappeared in: 1934
Reward
offered: Undisclosed – although one million
Belgian francs (£21,300) were demanded as a ransom.
This painting was part of the Ghent Altarpiece at the Belgian city's Saint Bavo Cathedral. It was carefully removed from its panels during the night in April 1934 and replaced with a note: "Taken from Germany by the Treaty of Versaille". A ransom was demanded but the Bishop of Ghent refused to pay it, although further negotations were made through letters later in 1934. When the thief was on his deathbed a few weeks later, he insisted that he would take the secret of the masterpiece's location to his grave.
Disappeared in: 2000
Reward
offered: Undisclosed
As Oxford's revellers were welcoming in the Millenium, a criminal used the opportunity to break into the city's Ashmolean Museum and steal Cezanne's painting, View of Auvers-sur-Oise. The painting is still unlocated, although no public reward has been offered for information.
Disappeared in: 1945
Reward
offered: Undisclosed
The 16th-century oil painting disappeared at the end of World War II. Although the painting was rescued from the Czartoryski Museum,Kraków, in 1939, it was taken by the Gestapo to decorate Hitler's Berlin residence. In 1945, senior Nazi official Hans Frank took the paintings from the Führer's collection to the royal Wawel Castle. It has not been seen since.
Disappeared in: 1969
Reward
offered: Undisclosed
Caravaggio's Nativity hung in the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily, until 1969, when it was removed from its frame and then the church. The local Mafia are the prime suspects, although the 17th-century painting's location remains unknown. There have been several theories about what happened to it, however, including being destroyed by rats and pigs after being hidden in a farmhouse.
More recently, a former Mafia hitman-turned-informer said it was burned in the Eighties.
Disappeared in: 2002
Reward
offered: £870,000
This painting is one of two stolen from the Vincent van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in December 2002. Two thieves broke into the building through the roof, and managed to steal Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Neunen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen in just a few minutes. Together, the works are thought to be worth £25 million. Although Dutch police convicted two men a year later, the paintings remain unrecovered.
Disappeared in: 1990
Reward
offered: £3.2 million
This Vermeer painting was also a victim of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum theft. Valued at £130 million, it is thought to be the most valuable unrecovered stolen painting in history.