NETHERLANDS: Paintings by Picasso, Monet, Mattisse and other famous modern artists stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal Museum

Record ID: 582987

  • Title: NETHERLANDS: Paintings by Picasso, Monet, Mattisse and other famous modern artists stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal Museum
  • Date: 16th October 2012
  • Summary: ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS (OCTOBER 16, 2012) (REUTERS) EXTERIOR OF KUNSTHAL ART MUSEUM POLICE CAR OUTSIDE MUSEUM VARIOUS EXTERIORS OF MUSEUM AND POLICE POLICEMAN SECURING EVIDENCE OUTSIDE OF THE MUSEUM GROUP OF POLICEMEN SIGN READING: "AVANTGARDES" INSIDE MUSEUM EXTERIOR OF MUSEUM POLICE TAPE OUTSIDE MUSEUM POLICEMAN LOOKING FOR FINGERPRINTS OUTSIDE OF THE MUSEUM EXTERIO
  • Embargoed: 31st October 2012 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Netherlands
  • Country: Netherlands
  • Topics: Crime
  • Reuters ID: LVA9JW6AHVOJZ64Y8Z9ZD6J52CTY
  • Story Text: Thieves made off with paintings by Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Claude Monet and other famous modern artists from a museum in Rotterdam, Dutch police said on Tuesday (October 16)
    Paintings by Paul Gauguin, Lucian Freud and Meyer de Haan, were also on the list of seven paintings stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal museum overnight, police said.
    "Somewhere after three o'clock on Tuesday morning we got a report of the break-in in the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam. After the police arrived, we found out that seven paintings were stolen," said Roland Ekkers, spokesman for the Rotterdam police department.
    Neither the police nor the Kunsthal were immediately able to put a value on the haul, but the theft is one of the art world's most dramatic in recent years and will likely be worth millions.
    So far, police investigators have no explanation as to how the paintings could be removed.
    "The alarm system in the Kunsthal was supposed to be state of the art so we have got no reason to believe that it is not. But somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out and they found time to take seven paintings. So that's something that is part of our investigation right now," Ekkers said.
    The list of paintings on the Dutch police website were: 1. Pablo Picasso: "T�e d'Arlequin" 2. Henri Matisse: "la Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune" 3. Claude Monet: "Waterloo Bridge, London" 4. Claude Monet: "Charing Cross Bridge, London" 5. Paul Gauguin: "Femme devant une fen�re ouverte, dite la Fianc�" 6. Meyer de Haan: "Autoportrait" (circa 1889 - '91) 7. Lucian Freud: "Woman with Eyes Closed" (2002)
    Kunsthal, designed by Dutch architect Rem Koolhaas, does not have its own collection and exhibits different types of art, including photos, sculptures, design and fashion.
    It had only just opened a new exhibition a few days ago to celebrate its 20th anniversary, including paintings by Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Piet Mondriaan, Monet, Vincent van Gogh, Freud, and others showing examples of impressionism, expressionism, and other modern art movements.
    More than 150 paintings on display in the exhibit came from the privately owned Triton Foundation collection, and many of the works are worth a million euros or more, Kunsthal's former executive Wim van Krimpen told Dutch public radio station Radio 1.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2012. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register