Museum in Paris hit as thief steals five works
Source: Agencies |
May 21, 2010, Friday
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A THIEF stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said yesterday.
The paintings disappeared early yesterday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower in one of the French capital's most chic and tourist-frequented neighborhoods.
The museum's security system, including some of the surveillance cameras, had been broken for the past few days, a police official said.
Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall, confirmed that the security system was disabled at the time of the theft, and said a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters, who suggested the heist was carried out by a very "sophisticated" team or individual. He said three guards were on duty overnight but "they saw nothing."
The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
The prosecutor's office initially estimated the five paintings' total worth at as much as 500 million euros (US$613 million).
Girard, however, said the total value was "just under 100 million euros."
He said, "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas), an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was worth an estimated 23 million euros, and "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse about 15 million euros.
The other paintings stolen were "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; "La femme a l'Eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and "Nature morte aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.
Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft "appears to be one of the biggest" art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum.
She added, however, that the value of the paintings would have to be confirmed, as museums and art dealers often value paintings differently.
She said it will be "virtually impossible" to sell such prominent paintings on the open market and that typically, stolen art fetches lower prices on the black market.
"Very often they can be used as collateral to broker other deals" involving drugs or weapons, she said. "They are not necessarily going to be bought by some great lover of the arts."
Interpol is alerting its national bureaus around the world to the theft.
A security guard at the museum said the paintings were discovered missing by a night watchman just before 7am yesterday. The guard was not authorized to be named because of museum policy.
The paintings disappeared early yesterday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower in one of the French capital's most chic and tourist-frequented neighborhoods.
The museum's security system, including some of the surveillance cameras, had been broken for the past few days, a police official said.
Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall, confirmed that the security system was disabled at the time of the theft, and said a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera.
Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters, who suggested the heist was carried out by a very "sophisticated" team or individual. He said three guards were on duty overnight but "they saw nothing."
The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor's office said.
The prosecutor's office initially estimated the five paintings' total worth at as much as 500 million euros (US$613 million).
Girard, however, said the total value was "just under 100 million euros."
He said, "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas), an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was worth an estimated 23 million euros, and "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse about 15 million euros.
The other paintings stolen were "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; "La femme a l'Eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and "Nature morte aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.
Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft "appears to be one of the biggest" art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum.
She added, however, that the value of the paintings would have to be confirmed, as museums and art dealers often value paintings differently.
She said it will be "virtually impossible" to sell such prominent paintings on the open market and that typically, stolen art fetches lower prices on the black market.
"Very often they can be used as collateral to broker other deals" involving drugs or weapons, she said. "They are not necessarily going to be bought by some great lover of the arts."
Interpol is alerting its national bureaus around the world to the theft.
A security guard at the museum said the paintings were discovered missing by a night watchman just before 7am yesterday. The guard was not authorized to be named because of museum policy.
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