Paintings worth ‘hundreds of millions’ stolen in heist

Thieves yesterday broke into a Rotterdam museum and walked off with works from the likes of Picasso, Monet, Gauguin, and Matisse potentially worth hundreds of millions of euro.

Police have not said how they pulled it off, but an expert who tracks stolen art said the robbers knew what they were after.

“Those thieves got one hell of a haul,” said Chris Marinello, who directs the Art Loss Register.

The heist at the Kunsthal museum is one of the largest in years in the Netherlands, and a major blow for the private Triton Foundation collection, which was being exhibited publicly as a group for the first time.

The collection was on display as part of celebrations surrounding the museum’s 20th anniversary.

Willemieke Romijn, a police spokeswoman, said investigators were reviewing videotapes of the theft, which took place at about 3am local time, and calling for any witnesses to come forward.

The Art Loss Register’s Marinello said the items taken could be worth “hundreds of millions of euro” if sold legally at auction.

However, he said that was now impossible, as the paintings have been registered internationally as stolen.

The stolen works were Pablo Picasso’s 1971 Harlequin Head; Claude Monet’s 1901 Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London; Henri Matisse’s 1919 Reading Girl in White and Yellow; Paul Gauguin’s 1898 Girl in Front of Open Window; Meyer de Haan’s Self-Portrait, around 1890, and Lucian Freud’s 2002 work Woman with Eyes Closed.

Marinello said the thieves have limited options, such as blackmailing the owners, the museum or the insurers.

They could conceivably sell the paintings in the criminal market too, though any sale would likely be a small fraction of their potential auction value.

The Triton Foundation is a collection of avant- garde art put together by multimillionaire Willem Cordia, an investor and businessman, and his wife, Marijke Cordia-Van der Laan.

The Kunsthal museum is a display space that has no permanent collection of its own.

The Cordia family collection includes works by more than 150 famed artists. Others whose work was on show include Paul Cezanne, Marc Chagall, Salvador Dali, Edgar Degas, and Andy Warhol.

Curators of the Cordia family collection aim to have the works on display for the public, and pieces have been shown in the past.

The museum is closed as the police continue with their investigation.

“A major investigation is under way and forensics are at the scene,” Patricia Wessels, Rotterdam police spokeswoman said.

“We’re investigating how they got access, what time it happened and who did it.”