Stolen painting are back, but damaged

THREE stolen paintings by Picasso, Gauguin and Van Gogh which were found yesterday today following an anonymous tip-off may have been severely damaged by rain, police said.

A tube containing the valuable paintings was found near to a disused public toilet close to Whitworth Art Gallery, from where they were stolen, in Manchester city centre.

A Greater Manchester police spokeswoman said heavy rain overnight was thought to have damaged the paintings, which were estimated to be worth more than £1 million. A note was believed to have been written on the tube from the thieves, claiming that their motive was to highlight the poor security at the art gallery, according to police sources.

A major police inquiry into the theft was launched following the discovery of their disappearance yesterday.

Police said the paintings could have been taken any time after 9pm on Saturday. But the alarm was not raised until noon yesterday when staff returned to open the gallery to the public for the afternoon.

The three paintings, the largest of which measured 15 inches by 20 inches (39cm by 53cm), included The Fortification of Paris with Houses, painted by Vincent Van Gogh when he was just 25. The others were Poverty, painted in 1903 by Pablo Picasso, then aged 24, and Paul Gauguin’s Tahitian Landscape, painted between 1891 and 1893. In recent years there has been a spate of raids on British art collections - with the total value of art and antiques stolen estimated at between £300m and £500m each year.