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http://www.statesman.com/news/content/news/stories/world/02/12/0212a3tk.html
[h1]Four masterpieces stolen in Zurich art heist[/h1][h2]Paintings by Impressionist masters are worth an estimated $163 million.
"We're talking about the biggest ever robbery carried out in Switzerland, even Europe," Zurich police spokesman Mario Cortesisaid.[/h2]
Police said the robbery occurred about 30 minutes before closing time Sunday, when three men wearing dark clothes and ski masks, one of them carrying ahandgun, entered the museum's main entrance and ordered people to lie down. As the armed man watched the door and the frightened staff, the two others wentinto a nearby exhibit hall and removed the paintings.
Museum Director Lukas Gloor said at a news conference Monday that the paintings were displayed behind glass panels and that an alarm was triggered as soonas they were touched.
The paintings - "Poppies near Vetheuil" by Monet, "Count Lepic and His Daughters" by Degas, "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" byvan Gogh and "The Boy in the Red Vest" by Cezanne - were among the most prized in the museum's 200-piece collection.
Gloor said the stolen paintings were so well-known that "on the open market, these pictures are unsellable."
Police said the three men lugged the canvases to a white vehicle parked outside and sped away.
They said one robber spoke German with a Slavic accent. A $90,000 reward is being offered for information leading to recovery of the paintings.
It was the second major art heist in the Zurich area in five days. On Feb. 6, two paintings by Pablo Picasso worth an estimated $4.5 million - "Tête deCheval" (Horse's Head) and "Verre et Pichet" (Glass and Pitcher) - were stolen from a nearby cultural center, where they were on loan from amuseum in Germany. Police said they were investigating whether the robberies were related.
The E.G. Buehrle Collection, according to its Web site, is considered one of the most important private collections of 20th-century European art, focusingprimarily on French Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces.
It was amassed in the 1950s by Buehrle, a German-born industrialist who made his fortune selling weapons to the Third Reich during World War II. Today it ishoused in an 1886 villa that adjoins Buehrle's former home.
[h1]Four masterpieces stolen in Zurich art heist[/h1][h2]Paintings by Impressionist masters are worth an estimated $163 million.
"We're talking about the biggest ever robbery carried out in Switzerland, even Europe," Zurich police spokesman Mario Cortesisaid.[/h2]
Police said the robbery occurred about 30 minutes before closing time Sunday, when three men wearing dark clothes and ski masks, one of them carrying ahandgun, entered the museum's main entrance and ordered people to lie down. As the armed man watched the door and the frightened staff, the two others wentinto a nearby exhibit hall and removed the paintings.
Museum Director Lukas Gloor said at a news conference Monday that the paintings were displayed behind glass panels and that an alarm was triggered as soonas they were touched.
The paintings - "Poppies near Vetheuil" by Monet, "Count Lepic and His Daughters" by Degas, "Blossoming Chestnut Branches" byvan Gogh and "The Boy in the Red Vest" by Cezanne - were among the most prized in the museum's 200-piece collection.
Gloor said the stolen paintings were so well-known that "on the open market, these pictures are unsellable."
Police said the three men lugged the canvases to a white vehicle parked outside and sped away.
They said one robber spoke German with a Slavic accent. A $90,000 reward is being offered for information leading to recovery of the paintings.
It was the second major art heist in the Zurich area in five days. On Feb. 6, two paintings by Pablo Picasso worth an estimated $4.5 million - "Tête deCheval" (Horse's Head) and "Verre et Pichet" (Glass and Pitcher) - were stolen from a nearby cultural center, where they were on loan from amuseum in Germany. Police said they were investigating whether the robberies were related.
The E.G. Buehrle Collection, according to its Web site, is considered one of the most important private collections of 20th-century European art, focusingprimarily on French Impressionist and post-Impressionist masterpieces.
It was amassed in the 1950s by Buehrle, a German-born industrialist who made his fortune selling weapons to the Third Reich during World War II. Today it ishoused in an 1886 villa that adjoins Buehrle's former home.
