[MSN] Brazils premier modern art museum and local authorities are investigating why security guards were not paying attention to security cameras as thieves broke in to steal a Pablo Picasso painting last week.

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Brazil museum, authorities probe whether security images ignored during art heist

The Associated Press
Sunday, December 23, 2007

SAO PAULO, Brazil: Brazil's premier modern art museum and local authorities are investigating why security guards were not paying attention to security cameras as thieves broke in to steal a Pablo Picasso painting last week.

The three burglars, armed with nothing more than a crow bar and a car jack, took three minutes to break into the Sao Paulo Museum of Art before dawn Thursday and steal Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch," and Brazilain Candido Portinari's "O Lavrador de Cafe."

"Someone was supposed to be looking at the security cam images at the time of the robbery," museum spokesman Eduardo Cosomano said on Sunday. "We don't know if that happened, but if somebody was there, the images clearly should have prompted an alert to police."

The security cameras produced only blurred images of the heist, but Cosomano said they were clear enough to show that something was wrong.

Authorities also turned their focus to the guards in charge of monitoring the images, and investigated whether the images were not seen or bluntly ignored, the Folha de S. Paulo newspaper, Brazil's largest, reported Sunday.

The museum's security system relied on the cameras and unarmed guards patrolling the building's interior, rather than alarms or movement sensors.

Guards have been questioned by authorities, but none has been fired.

Picasso painted "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" in 1904 during his Blue Period and it is among the most valuable pieces in the museum's collection.

Jones Bergamin, a Sao Paulo gallery director, estimated the Picasso was worth US$50 million (€35 million) and said the painting by Portinari, among Brazil's most famous painters, was worth at least US$5 million (€3.5 million).

Police have said they believe the thieves were paid by a wealthy art lover adding to a private collection.

Last year, four paintings by Dali, Picasso, Monet and Cezanne were stolen from a Rio de Janeiro art museum by a gang of five men using a carnival street parade as cover. Those works, valued at around US$40 million (€28 million), have not been recovered.

http://www.iht.com/