SWITZERLAND:A Zurich gallery has offered a €62,000 reward for the recovery of four paintings worth €113 million, stolen on Sunday by masked gunmen in what police have called a "spectacular" art theft.
Four oil paintings by Cézanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet were snatched on Sunday afternoon in a three-minute raid on the Bührle Museum, an ivy-covered villa near Lake Zurich.
Three men wearing ski masks and dark clothes burst into the museum shortly before 4.30pm, waving pistols.
One man ordered visitors and employees on to the ground while the other two headed into a ground-floor hall. They removed four works from the walls and then escaped in a white car.
The four paintings stolen were: Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil (1880); Cézanne's Boy in the Red Vest (1890); Degas's Viscount Lepic and his Daughters (1871); and Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches (1890).
The theft came just four days after two valuable Picasso works were stolen from a cultural centre near Zurich.
"We are dealing with a new kind of art thief," said police spokesman Marco Cortesi.
The speed of the raid showed the men were well-prepared, he said, comparing it to the 2004 theft of Edvard Munch's The Scream in Oslo.
Museum curator Lukas Gloor said he was "devastated" by the theft but relieved no one was hurt.
"They could have taken more valuable paintings but those are covered with glass and quite heavy," he said. "On the open market, these pictures are unsellable."
Swiss media speculated yesterday that the theft might be a case of "artnapping", where works are stolen and returned later on payment of a ransom.
The museum was closed to visitors yesterday as it reviewed its security measures. Police said they had no clues to the identity of the thieves but did not rule out a connection with last week's Picasso theft.
"It is no coincidence that the thieves targeted us, a small museum in an isolated location," said Mr Gloor. "This has been the nature of other thefts in the recent past."
The Bührle collection is one of Europe's finest collections of French expressionists, but it is also one of the most controversial. The works were bought between 1951 and 1956 by German-born industrialist Emil Georg Bührle, who made his fortune supplying the Nazis with arms during the second World War.