A trio of armed bandits stormed a museum in Zurich on Sunday and escaped with four classic artworks by legendary impressionist painters Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet.
Rather than cracking security, dodging infrared laser beams and rappelling the museums walls in the wee hours of the night, the burglars, in true stick-em’-up style, entered the museum around 4:30 in the afternoon, threatened the security guards with a pistol, collected the paintings and fled in a white vehicle that was parked outside.
The stolen paintings are: Boy in a Red Jacket, by Paul Cezanne, Chestnut in Bloom, by Vincent Van Gogh, Count Lepic and his Daughters, by Edgar Degas and my personal favorite, Poppies near Vetheuil, by Claude Monet .
Not only is this the biggest robbery in the history of Switzerland, it comes just days after Picasso’s oil paintings Head of Horse and Glass and Pitcher were stolen from a showing in the town of Pfaeffikon. Whether the two incidents are related is yet to be determined.
It’s interesting when extraordinarily valuable pieces of artwork get stolen, don’t you think? I always wonder where they end up. After all, they’re so recognizable that selling them on the open market would be impossible. In my mind, thievery of this nature conjures up thoughts of secret societies, underground bourgeoisie collectors and elusive billionaires hiding out in remote castles with private galleries hidden down mysterious corridors. What do you think?
Via: BBC
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The secret art collectors you are referencing reminds me of Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones in the film Entrapment.