Art raiders escape with haul ‘worth hundreds of millions’
A MUSEUM which yesterday became the victim of one of the biggest art heists in history has admitted that there were no guards on duty at the time. Seven paintings worth hundreds of millions of pounds, including works by Picasso and Monet, were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in the Dutch city of Rotterdam after thieves broke in at 3am.
The gang managed to bypass the sophisticated alarm system, in what police say was a well-prepared robbery.
Chris Marinello, director of the Art Loss Register, which tracks stolen artworks, said the smooth nature of the theft suggested the gang must have had inside information. ‘Those thieves got one hell of a haul,’ he added.
The paintings included Monet’s Waterloo Bridge and Charing Cross Bridge (both 1901), Picasso’s Harlequin Head ( 1971), Matisse’s Reading Girl In White And Yellow (1919) and Lucian Freud’s Woman With Eyes Closed (2002).
Gauguin’s Girl in Front of Open Window ( 1898) and Meyer de Haan’s Autoportrait (1890) were also taken.
The works were on public display for the first time to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the museum’s opening.
They were owned by the Triton Foundation, a collection of avantgarde art put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia and his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan.
Tim Hunter, director at Gurrjohns, the world’s largest valuation and advisory firm, said: ‘Each of these paintings will be worth tens of millions of pounds as they are part of an extremely important collection. We are looking at a total of hundreds of millions.
‘It’s possible they’ve been stolen to hold the museum to ransom, since they could never be sold on the open market.’
Emily Ansenk, head of the museum, said: ‘It’s every director’s worst nightmare.’
She declined to reveal details of how the thieves struck, describing the museum’s security as ‘functional’.
The biggest art theft in history occurred in 1990 when works by Rembrandt and Vermeer worth £500million were stolen from a Boston museum.