With Disabled Security System Thief Steals Five Paintings from P

With Disabled Security System Thief Steals Five Paintings from Paris Museum of Modern Art

Police officers search for clues as they pack up the frames of the stolen paintings outside the Paris Museum of Modern Art, following the report of five paintings having been stolen, Thursday May 20, 2010. Police and prosecutors say a lone thief has stolen five paintings worth a total of Euros 500 million ($613 million), including works by Picasso and Matisse and Modigliani. AP Photo/Jacques Brinon. By: Angela Charlton, Associated Press Writer PARIS (AP).- A lone thief stole five paintings possibly worth hundreds of millions of euros, including major works by Picasso and Matisse, in a brazen overnight heist at a Paris modern art museum, police and prosecutors said Thursday. The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital's most tourist-frequented neighborhoods. The museum's security system was disabled, and a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera, according to Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall. Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but "they saw nothing." The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor's office said. The prosecutor's office initially estim ... More