Europe's biggest art heist

[king ubu]

Just around the corner from where I live, in fact... too bad I didn't take a sunday afternoon promenade and saw the getaway car - there's a 100'000 CHF reward offered for any hints...

http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/news/social_af...17000&ty=st

February 11, 2008 - 9:45 PM

Huge art heist raises questions

Police and art experts are puzzling over the audacious theft in Zurich of works by Cézanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet valued at SFr180 million ($165 million).

The four works were stolen in broad daylight on Sunday from the private museum, the Bührle Collection. It was the biggest robbery of its kind in Switzerland – and one of the largest committed anywhere.

The three masked men who entered the building housing the valuable collection of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art are still at large, according to police.

While one of the men used a pistol to force museum personnel to the floor, the two others went into the exhibition hall and collected the paintings - Cézanne's The Boy in the Red Vest - worth SFr100m on its own - van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches, Monet's Poppies near Vétheuil and Degas' Count Lepic and His Daughters.

The museum was open at the time with around 15 visitors inside the building. The thieves loaded the paintings into a white getaway vehicle. A SFr100,000 reward has been offered for any information leading to their recovery.

"I think they knew exactly what they wanted to steal because it was over in three minutes. They came in and went directly to the right room and took the four most highly valued pictures," police spokesman Marco Cortesi told swissinfo.

"It is one possibility that they were stolen to order, but what do you want to do with these pictures at home?" Cortesi said. "Everybody now knows these pictures have been stolen."

He added the police could not yet say if there was a connection between this case and the robbery of two Picasso paintings from an exhibition in Pfäffikon near Zurich only four days earlier.

Ransom?

Museum director Lukas Gloor told journalists that he had not ruled out that a ransom demand would eventually be made for the works taken from the Bürhle Collection. His view is supported by international art experts.

"There have been instances in the past where valuable art works have been used as some form of bargaining chip or alternative for currency in exchange for a drugs consignment," Sarah Jackson, research director of London's Art Loss Register told swissinfo.

"So, it is possible that this may be the fate of the pictures, but I think we have to wait to see what leads come out of it," Jackson added. "There is absolutely no chance of selling these on the legitimate art market."

Swiss police said all of the paintings were secured with alarm detectors but the well-organised thieves were able to flee before the police arrived.

Re-evaluate security

Gloor said despite the security precautions, it was no coincidence that the robbers chose to hoist art from a small museum in a relatively isolated location. He said security would have to be re-evaluated at the Bührle Collection and at other, similar institutions.

"Regretfully, it has in the past repeatedly been the fact that collectors' museums of this type have been the victims of robberies."

The art collection of Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956), a Zurich industrialist, is among the most important private collections amassed in the 20th century of European art.

He acquired the lion's share in the 1950s, but a few of the works he collected during the Second World War were discovered later to have been stolen by the Nazis.

In 1960 Bührle's family placed 200 pieces in a foundation and opened it to the public.

"There is the financial value, but there is also the spiritual value, and we are facing the fact that these paintings are some of the most important in our collection," Gloor told swissinfo.

The biggest art robbery of all time took place in 1991 when thieves stole 20 paintings worth $500 million from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum. They were found shortly afterwards in an abandoned car.

The FBI estimates the market for stolen art at $6 billion annually, and Interpol has about 30,000 pieces of stolen art in its database.

While only a fraction of pieces is ever found, the theft of iconic objects, especially by force, is rarer because of the intense police work that follows and because the works are so difficult to sell.

swissinfo with agencies

by the way: don't ask where this guy got his collection from - I don't know, and at this moment I don't care (have the time) to investigate or even just google that... still, such a heist is a bad thing - these paintings were accessible publicly (though I confess we never made it there, they had very limited opening hours, just a few hours per week or so, as it's a private institution), and now if the paintings are not used for demanding ransom, they'll end up in some private collection by rich (and probably reputable/charitable) assholes who don't care about not being able to show them off...

[king ubu]

the biggest heist it is only if you do not count that Amsterdam 1991 one, where the paintings had been found shortly after.

[Aggie87]

Swiss police recover stolen masterpieces

CNN) -- Police have recovered two of the four Impressionist paintings stolen earlier this month in a daring museum heist, police in Zurich, Switzerland said Tuesday.

The Monet and van Gogh oil paintings were in good condition, police said, and the search continued for the other two -- a Cezanne and a Degas.

A parking lot attendant at the Psychiatric University Hospital in Zurich found the paintings Monday afternoon in the back of an unlocked white car, police said.

It was not clear how long the car, an Opel Omega with stolen license plates, had been parked on the lot, police said.

"The two paintings, worth about 70 million francs($64 million), are in good condition and are still protected by the original glass covering," police said in a statement.

Three masked men stole the four paintings in what police called a "spectacular" heist Feb. 11 at the E.G. Buhrle Collection -- among the finest collections of Impressionist and post-Impressionist art in the world.

One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

Afterward, the three men loaded the paintings into a white car parked in front of the museum and then drove off, police said.

The paintings recovered Monday are Monet's "Poppies near Vetheuil" and van Gogh's "Blossoming Chestnut Branches." Still missing are Degas' "Count Lepic and his Daughters" and Cezanne's "Boy in a Red Vest."

The four paintings are worth a total of about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs).

A reward of $91,000 (100,00 Swiss francs) has been posted for information leading to the return of the paintings, police said.

A Zurich police task force, which includes an art expert, had received tips from around the world, police said. The task force was looking into possible connections with other art thefts inside Switzerland and abroad.

The Zurich heist followed the recent theft in Switzerland of two paintings by Pablo Picasso, said Bjoern Quellenberg, a spokesman for the Kunsthaus, another major art museum in Zurich.

The director of the Kunsthaus serves on the E.G. Buhrle private art foundation's council, Quellenberg said.

In that theft, thieves stole the 1962 "Tete de Cheval" ("Horse's Head") and the 1944 "Verre et Pichet" ("Glass and Pitcher") by Picasso. They were on loan from a German museum and valued at $4.5 million when they were stolen February 6, according to news reports.

[Aggie87]

In other Swiss news, Flurin's looking for a new car.

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

"The two paintings, worth about 70 million francs($64 million), are in good condition..."

Pity they weren't NM, they realy be worth something.

MG

[king ubu]

In other Swiss news, Flurin's looking for a new car.

he he, I wouldn't know what to do with a car (unless a driver was included...)