Gang denies burning masterpieces as Dutch heist case adjourned in Bucharest

Accused Romanians say they are willing to return artworks by Freud, Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Gauguin

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Romanians accused of stealing artworks by Lucian Freud, Picasso, Monet, Matisse and Gauguin deny burning the paintings and are willing to give them back, their lawyers said yesterday in a case dubbed the bonfire of the masterpieces.

The trial of the accused opened in Bucharest and was promptly adjourned amid continuing confusion over whether any of the paintings stolen last year from the Netherlands had been destroyed.

The mother of one of the suspects said last month she had burned at least three of the works – the seven stolen paintings are together insured for €18 million – in her kitchen stove, but then withdrew her statement. One analysis of the ashes painstakingly raked out from the stove suggested traces of painted canvas, but a lawyer for one of the accused yesterday insisted all the pictures were intact.

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Maria Vasii, representing Eugen Darie – accused of driving the getaway car – said: “Our customers are waiting for the right procedural framework before they can make all necessary steps to hand over these paintings to Dutch authorities. Our customers have informed us that the paintings have not been burnt.”

If indeed the pictures have survived, they appear to have become bargaining chips in a complicated tangle of legal actions.

A lawyer for Radu Dogaru, accused of being the ringleader of the gang, also said none of the paintings had been damaged. Catalin Dancu, who said Dogaru wants to be tried in the Netherlands and to serve any jail sentence there, said he has “control” over five of the paintings, and that it was “certain” they had been brought to Romania but not burnt.

The theft in October 2012 of the seven paintings from the Kunsthal gallery in Rotterdam was one of the most spectacular art heists in decades.

Romanian prosecutors are seeking 20-year sentences for Dogaru and his mother, Olga, as well as for Darie, and lesser sentences for other associates.

– (Guardian service)