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Biggest Art Heist in the History of Europe


Farin

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[big]Paintings Worth 112.4 Million Euros Stolen in Zurich[/big]

[smaller]February 11, 2008, spiegelonline

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Three robbers took four paintings worth millions from a Zurich collection on Sunday night after forcing museum personnel to the floor at gunpoint. It's one of the biggest such heists ever in Europe.

It's a crime difficult to beat in terms of audacity. On Sunday in Switzerland, three men in ski masks wandered into a Zurich museum just before closing time. A few minutes later, the group walked out with four paintings worth 112.4 million euros ($163.2 million) and drove off in a white van. Police still have few leads and are asking for possible witnesses to come forward to help the investigation.

The theft took place at the E.G. Buehrle Collection, an elite private museum in Switzerland's financial capital stuffed with Impressionist and post-Impressionist works. Museum workers could do little to hinder the robbers, as one of the men used a pistol to force guards and other personnel to the floor. Police said that one of the men spoke German with a Slavic accent, but that is about all they have to go on for now.

Police spokesman Marco Cortese compared the magnitude of the heist to the 2004 robbery of Edvard Munch's "The Scream." Officials have not yet speculated on whether Sunday's robbery might be connected to a theft last week of two Picasso paintings from a cultural center in Pfäffikon, a small town just south of Zurich. Those paitings were on loan from the Sprengel Museum in Hanover, Germany.

The works stolen on Sunday include Claude Monet's "Poppy Field at Vetheuil," Edgar Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter," Vincent van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches," and Paul Cezanne's "Boy in the Red Waistcoat." While the paintings are among the most important in the museum's collection, there were a number of even more valuable works on display in the same room, museum director Lukas Gloor told the Associated Press.

Gloor told reporters on Monday that the museum would be closed to the public for the foreseeable future and that visitors would only be allowed in as part of guided tours. The Picasso exhibition in Pfäffikon also elected to shut its doors on Monday in light of heightened security fears.

But even as the museum takes a hard look at its security precautions, the thieves themselves likewise have a problem on their hands. Because of the fame of the paintings they swiped, selling them is likely out of the question.

Still, the theft is part of a growing number of art robberies. The FBI estimates the market at $6 billion and, according to the AP, Interpol has some 30,000 pieces of stolen art in its database.

cgh/ap/reuters

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Art heists have always perplexed me. What does one DO with a stolen Monet? Keep it above the sofa in his double-wide? It would HAVE to be a tough resale. EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD knows it's stolen!

And the dude who actually has enough coin to purchase said stolen article(s)....what would HE do with it? Keep it in his basement forever where nobody could ever see it?! Well, THAT'S surely a masterpiece?

Be a man...stick to bank robbing...or at least jewel thievery! P*ssies!

:afro: :afro: :afro: :jester: :confused:

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Art heists have always perplexed me. What does one DO with a stolen Monet? Keep it above the sofa in his double-wide? It would HAVE to be a tough resale. EVERYBODY IN THE WORLD knows it's stolen!

And the dude who actually has enough coin to purchase said stolen article(s)....what would HE do with it? Keep it in his basement forever where nobody could ever see it?! Well, THAT'S surely a masterpiece?

Be a man...stick to bank robbing...or at least jewel thievery! P*ssies!

:afro: :afro: :afro: :jester: :confused:

they explained that in the news today:

apparently a lot of times the pictures are held for ransom... either against the owners (galleries, museums) or against the insurance companies...

seems they're more willing to pay 5-10 million ransom than the 50-60 million in case the paintings are "lost"

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I was thinking that since there are no lives at stake in this game of hold-for-ransom, the insurance companies might do well to follow the script of that movie "Ransom" and offer double whatever the demand, for presentation of the theft mastermind. This might not get the art back, but would certainly make future plotters think twice.

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