Paintings worth euro500M stolen from Paris museum

[demoleft]

Source: ap

PARIS – A lone thief stole five paintings worth a total of half a billion euros, including works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist Thursday from a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said.
...
A single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera entering the museum by a window and taking thet paintings away, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.

Their collective worth is estimated at euro500 million ($613 million), the prosecutor's office said.

The paintings were "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas) by Pablo Picasso, "Pastoral" by Henri Matisse, "Olive Tree near Estaque" by Georges Braque, "Woman with a Fan" by Amedeo Modigliani and "Still Life with Chandeliers" by Fernand Leger.

Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100520/ap_on_en_ot/eu_france_museum_theft

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"A single masked intruder" - eheh, old fashioned way.

[Tesha]

1. I would blame Sir Charles Phantom, the famous Litton! (NT)

[demoleft]

11. or Daniel Ocean without his 11. n/t

[BakedAtAMileHigh]

2. whover they were, they had good taste

That Modigliani is gorgeous:

[ixion]

3. Yeah, my thoughts as well...

It sounds like the paintings were stolen at the behest of an aficionado.

[gtar100]

4. A naive question - What good is it to steal a painting?

What art buyer would want to purchase a stolen painting? You risk throwing away all that money when the original owners make claim. And what good would it be to hide your ownership of a painting? Somebody sees value in owning a stolen painting? It seems your investment in art would be protected by the validity of your ownership and put at risk if ownership is in question.

What am I missing? I suspect if you know the answer, there is a lucritive business awaiting you!

[slackmaster]

6. There are unscruplous wealthy collectors who are willing to pay top dollar for something they want

It must be a very strange world.

And what good would it be to hide your ownership of a painting?

Some people acquire stolen things just to look at them. It's got nothing to do with investing.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0057413/

[Tesha]

7. Think of "The Shadow Gallery"

As Slackmaster suggested, they merely want to possess them/
look at them.

Also, in many places, it's just as well that the Taxman not know
that you have €500 million in fine art.

For all of those points, you might consider "V" and his "Shadow
Gallery".

Tesha

[bitchkitty]

9. Someone who loves the painting

and who wants to see it every day.

[Kingofalldems]

5. The Night Fox

[bitchkitty]

8. Damn! I love that Picasso.

And the Matisse! I would DIE to own this one:

[demoleft]

10. let's find out the thief's cove and let's go to steal it from him/her tonight.

i'm up

[bitchkitty]

13. Then we'll have to move in together, or fight for it!

LOL

I certainly don't condone stealing it, but I understand the need to own something so exquisite. Even if they couldn't hang it in public, even if they hung it in a closet, it would almost be worth it just to be able to look at it.

[demoleft]

14. let's go. i'm ready.

:hi:

[demoleft]

12. the official statement of the museum:

Cinq tableaux de maîtres, dont un Matisse et un Picasso, ont été volés dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi au musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.

Les cinq tableaux de maîtres volés dans la nuit de mercredi à jeudi au Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris représentent une valeur totale de 90 à 100 millions d'euros.Le vol a été constaté jeudi vers 06H50, avant l'ouverture des portes de l'établissement situé avenue du Président Wilson (XVIe).

Des oeuvres dérobées sont celles de Pablo Picasso ("Pigeon aux petits pois"), Henri Matisse ("La pastorale"), Georges Braque ("L'olivier près de l'Estaque"), Fernand Léger ("Nature morte, chandeliers") et Amedeo Modigliani ("La femme à l'éventail").

Un enregistrement des caméras de surveillance du musée a révélé qu'une personne s'était introduite dans l'établissement par une fenêtre. Les responsables de l'établissement ont constaté qu'une vitre du musée avait été brisée et un cadenas cisaillé. La brigade de répression du banditisme a été saisie de l'enquête.

source: MAM, http://www.paris.fr/portail/accueil/Portal.lut?page_id=1&document_type_id=2&document_id=84645&portlet_id=21961

[DoBotherMe]

15. Charles Hill, who once headed up Scotland Yard's famous Art Squad

had some thoughts on who would chance it

Charles Hill, who once headed up Scotland Yard's famous Art Squad, is renowned for recovering Edvard Munch's The Scream, after it was stolen from the National Gallery in Oslo, Norway in 1994. To retrieve the painting, he went undercover, posing as an art dealer.

Al Jazeera spoke to him about the latest high profile art robbery to hit a Paris museum, which included works from Picasso and Matisse.

Al Jazeera: Who do you think has stolen these art works?

Hill: ... I think he might be a loner, although I suspect he had someone waiting outside ready to take the paintings away.

more http://english.aljazeera.net/focus/2010/05/2010520171052925665.html

Dana ; )

[demoleft]

16. damn - it's the outline of me! good i'm not in paris these days, at least not physically.

:hi:

[demoleft]

17. the top ten of the last 30 years:

1. 1991, 20 artworks by van gogh stolen at the van gogh museum di amsterdam. found back some hours later in a deserted car.
2. 1990, two men dressed like policemen, broke into the Isabella Steward Gardner Museum di Boston and stole rembrandt, vermeer, manet and degas, 300 million dollars worth - in 80 minutes.
3. 1988, three artworks by vincent van gogh, taken away from the dutch kraller-muller museum of otterlo, 100 million dollars worth. all of them recovered.
4. 2004, two armed men stole 2 works by munch in oslo, norway - worth 90 million euro. it was full day.
5. 2008, 4 artworks by van gogh, monet, Degas and Cezanne stolen at the Buehrle of zurich. worth 70 million euro.
6. 2006, during the carnival, works by monet, dalì, matisse and picasso vanish from the chacara do ceu of rio de janeiro. worth millions dollars.
7. 2007, in mrs diana widmaier's house, picasso's niece, two artworks by picasso and a drawing got stolen, worth more or less 50 million euro.
8. 2007, at the MASP of sao paulo, brasil, a picasso and a portinari were taken away. the artworks were found back in 2008.
9. 2000, some minutes before closure, three men enter the National Museum of stockholm, sweden and stole two renoir and a rembrandt. the works were recovered in 2005.
10. 2003, a leonardo da vinci got stolen from the castle of drumlanrig, scotland. worth 35 millions euro, and filed by FBI in the list of the most wanted artworks in the world, it was found again in 2007.

not to mention the leonardo mona lisa, stolen from the louvre in 1911 and found back in italy in 1913.

source: ansa, http://www.ansa.it/web/notizie/photostory/primopiano/2010/05/20/visualizza_new.html_1794806093.html

[demoleft]

18. UPDATE: Museum of Modern Art's alarm system had not been fully functioning for several weeks...

...say officials, and the news already known yesterday was confirmed by the mayor.

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe admitted one of the museum's alarms had been "partly malfunctioning" since the end of March, and had been awaiting repair when the theft happened.

bbc, http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/world/europe/10136767.stm

the article by bbc titles: French police hunt thief of five art masterpieces but i read between the lines that the police have no clues.

Officials said that the burglar entered the museum at just before 0400 local time (0200 GMT) on Thursday, and took just 15 minutes to remove the canvases from their frames and slip out of the building again undetected.

Three security guards were on duty during the night, but the theft was only discovered at around 0700 local time (0500 GMT), Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall said.

[marshall]

19. A half a billion euro ain't what it used to be!

They may want to refigure their numbers.