Works by Picasso and Matisse Stolen From Paris Museum

Written by Doreen Carvajal Thursday, 20 May 2010 21:22

PARIS - A lone hooded man who squirmed through a broken window and evaded security alarms stole five paintings by Picasso, Matisse and other artists overnight Wednesday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, in a brash theft valued somewhere between $100 million and $125 million. Museum officials discovered the theft shortly before 7 a.m. Thursday, and said they had captured video images of the black-clad burglar as he stole into the museum’s Art Deco building, which sits across from the Seine and near the Eiffel Tower. The burglary — which triggered no electronic alarms — immediately raised fresh questions about museum security in the French capital.

Others in the art world were focused less on the thief's skill than on what they regard as malfeasance by museum management. Paris officials revealed that part of the museum alarm system had been broken since March 30.

"The director of the museum should be fired right away," said Ton Cremers, a museum security consultant and former head of security at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam. "It's unthinkable that your security system not be fully working for two months. It's like inviting the thieves in."

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe said in a statement that about $19 million was spent on a security upgrade from 2004 to 2006. When the alarm system broke, a maintenance company was notified immediately, but the new equipment never arrived.

"I'm particularly saddened and shocked by this theft," Delanoe said.

The mayor said he wanted an administrative investigation of the crime, in addition to detective work by a special police brigade.

Girard said the theft appeared to have taken place between 3 a.m. and 4 a.m. However, it wasn't discovered until just before 7 a.m. Thursday. News reports said security video revealed a lone figure sneaking in through a window. Officials are still trying to figure out whether accomplices were involved.

Last summer, a thief snatched a red sketchbook of 33 Picasso drawings from the Picasso Museum while it was undergoing renovations. Security alarms did not sound in that case, either. The museum was closed to visitors and cordoned off by investigators on Thursday.

The stolen works, part of the museum’s permanent collection, were “Dove With Green Peas” by Picasso, “La Pastorale” by Matisse, “Olive Tree Near Estaque” by Georges Braque, “Woman With a Fan” by Amedeo Modigliani and “Still Life With Chandeliers” by Fernand Leger.

The stature of the paintings would make them extremely difficult to sell in the art market, raising questions about whether the theft was a form of kidnapping to demand ransom from the museum. Police and museum officials said little about the security failure, particularly whether the alarm system had malfunctioned or had been disabled. The French newspaper Le Parisien quoted an unidentified source from the museum who claimed that the security alarm had not worked for two months, and that management had been notified of the problem.

But in a hastily called news conference outside the museum, Christophe Girard, deputy mayor of culture for Paris, told reporters that the museum was equipped with security alarms, and that three armed guards patrolling the museum on Wednesday night had not noticed anything amiss.

“We must leave it to the police to determine how the security system was evaded,” Mr. Girard said.

The theft, he added, was carried out “by one or more individuals, obviously very organized,” who entered by breaking a window at the rear of the east wing of the Palais de Tokyo.

Police officers carried out the original frames left behind by the burglar to search for fingerprints, passing them through the broken shards of a museum window. According to authorities, surveillance images show a hooded man, dressed in black, who smashed through a window and then used bolt cutters to remove a grid.

Bertrand Delanoë, the mayor of Paris, expressed his shock and sadness at a “theft that is an intolerable attack on the universal cultural heritage of Paris.”

He announced that the museum, which is owned by the city, would remain closed while the investigation continues. On Thursday, the museum posted a simple notice on its heavy double doors, blaming the closing on “technical reasons.”

Carol Vogel contributed reporting from New York.