Five masterpieces including works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse are stolen from the Musee d'Art Moderne in the French capital
Updated: 07 Jun 2010 2:45 pm
Thursday morning saw notices posted at the entrance of the Musee d'Art Moderne (Museum of Modern Art), housed in the Palais de Tokyo, in the 16th arrondissement, across the River Seine from the Eiffel Tower in Paris saying that it was closed for technical reasons. The museum guards had apparently noticed something amiss, shortly before 7am -- a smashed window and a cut open padlock. No alarms were triggered. Five paintings were found missing.
Security camera footage reportedly shows a man dressed in black with a mask covering his face entering the museum through a window during the night. He may not have been working alone -- "there were one or more individuals who were obviously organised" --police said. The five artworks missing were first estimated to be worth some 500m euros (£431m; $618m) which was later revised to just under 100m euros (£86m; $123m).
A police officer hands the packed frames of the stolen paintings to a colleague from outside the museum. The stolen works, part of the museum’s permanent collection, have been identified as “Dove With Green Peas” by Picasso, “La Pastorale” by Matisse, “Olive Tree Near L’Estaque” by Georges Braque, “Woman With a Fan” by Amedeo Modigliani and “Still Life With Chandeliers” by Fernand Leger.
Among the stolen paintings is "Le Pigeon aux petits pois (Dove With Green Peas)" painted in 1911 by Pablo Picasso, estimated to be worth at least ¤23m (£20m)
