Dramatic Dutch Art Heist: Picasso, Matisse, Monet And More

Thieves made off with paintings by Pablo Picasso, Matisse, Claude Monet and other famous modern artists from a museum in the Netherlands, Dutch police said on Tuesday (October 16) "Somewhere after three o'clock on Tuesday morning we got a report of the break-in in the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam. After the police arrived, we found out that seven paintings were stolen," said Roland Ekkers, spokesman for the Rotterdam police department. Neither the police nor the museum were able to put a value on the haul just yet, but the theft is one of the art world's worst in recent years and will likely be worth millions. So far, police investigators have no explanation as to how the paintings were removed. "The alarm system in the Kunsthal was supposed to be state of the art so we have got no reason to believe that it is not. But somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out and they found time to take seven paintings. So that's something that is part of our investigation right now," Ekkers said. The list of paintings on the Dutch police website were: 1. Pablo Picasso: "Tête d'Arlequin" 2.Henri Matisse: "la Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune" 3. Claude Monet: "Waterloo Bridge, London" 4.Claude Monet: "Charing Cross Bridge, London" 5. Paul Gauguin: "Femme devant une fenêtre ouverte, dite la Fiancée" 6. Meyer de Haan: "Autoportrait" (circa 1889 - '91) 7. Lucian Freud: "Woman with Eyes Closed" (2002) Kunsthal does not have its own collection and exhibits different types of art, including photos, sculptures, design and fashion.