ZURICH — Masked robbers brandishing handguns
stole four paintings by 19th Century masters worth $164 million
from a Zurich museum in Switzerland’s biggest art theft, police
said on Monday.
Oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and
Monet were stolen in broad daylight on Sunday from the private
Buehrle Collection in the second dramatic art theft in the area
within days.
"This is the biggest robbery in Switzerland
in an art museum and one of the biggest art robberies in
Europe," said Peter Rueegger, head of investigations for the
Zurich police.
Three men in dark clothing and masks, one of
whom spoke German with a Slavic accent, forced their way into
the museum and made off with the paintings in a white car,
police said.
A reward of 100,000 Swiss francs was on offer
for information leading to their arrest, police added.Rueegger
said the Zurich robbery could be compared to the theft of
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch’s ‘The Scream’ from the Munch
Museum in Oslo nearly four years ago. That work was recovered in
2006.
The robbery in Switzerland’s financial capital follows the
theft of two Picasso paintings — Tete de Cheval, from 1962, and
Verre et Pichet, from 1944 — from a nearby cultural centre last
week.The four paintings stolen were Cezanne’s The Boy in the Red
Vest from 1890, Degas’ Viscount Lepic and His Daughters from
1871, Monet’s Poppies Near Vetheuil from 1880 and Van Gogh’s
Blossoming Chestnut Branches from 1890, police said. —Reuters
