[MSN] armed robbery museum. Priceless paintings stolen at gunpoint from Nice museum.

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Priceless paintings stolen at gunpoint from Nice museum


Kim Willsher in Paris
Tuesday August 7, 2007
The Guardian 


Armed robbers have stolen four priceless works of art - including a Monet -
in a brazen daylight raid on a French museum.
A gang of masked men walked into the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nice and
ordered staff to lie on the floor at gunpoint while they snatched the
paintings. They removed five canvases but dropped and damaged one as they
made their escape.

Monet's Falaises près de Dieppe (Cliffs near Dieppe) and an 1890 work by
Alfred Sisley, Allée des peupliers de Moret (The Lane of Poplars at Moret)
were taken. Two paintings by Jan Brueghel the Elder, Allégorie de L'Eau
(Allegory of Water) and Allégorie de la Terre (Allegory of Earth), were also
taken.
It was the second time the Monet had been stolen and the third time for the
Sisley. Both were stolen from the same museum in 1998 but were discovered a
week later on a boat moored in a nearby town. The museum's then curator was
convicted of the theft and jailed for five years along with two accomplices.
The Sisley was also stolen in 1978 when on loan in Marseille. It was
recovered a few days later in the city's sewers.

The latest robbery took place at 1pm on Sunday, when the 19th-century museum
has free entry to the public. Police said there were four or five robbers,
two of whom made their getaway on a motorbike while the rest escaped in a
car.

Investigators believe the paintings, described as of "inestimable value" by
the museum, were almost certainly stolen by "special order" and destined for
a private collection as they are far too well known to be sold on the open
market.

Monique Bailet, the museum's assistant curator, said: "One of the staff
members on the first floor said the men ordered him to lie on the floor as
they put the paintings in bags. They wanted to take a fifth but weren't able
to."

Patricia Grimaud, one of the museum's conservationists, added: "They tried
to take a second Sisley but when they found it was too heavy or too bulky
they dropped it and broke the frame."

The Nice museum has a collection of art spanning four centuries. It is
celebrated for its fine impressionist and post-impressionist works and also
has sculptures by Auguste Rodin and ceramics by Pablo Picasso. The Brueghels
belonged to the museum while the Sisley and the Monet came from the Musée
d'Orsay in Paris.

The French culture minister, Christine Albanel, expressed "indignation and
sadness" at the theft.

There were no cameras in the building. André Barthe, Nice's deputy mayor in
charge of culture, said the staff were "more adapted to the task than
cameras".

"With cameras, you cut the wires, you disguise your appearance, as the
robbers did; it's not the ideal solution. I prefer an extra guard to an
extra camera," he told French radio. "Alarm or not, when you are robbed you
cannot do anything. We will however make a point of looking at security in
the city's museums."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/