::ART NEWS:: Tuesday 16th October 2012

Seven paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands on the 16th October 2012. The paintings included were by Monet, Picasso, Gauguin, Matisse, De Haan and Freud. The theft occurred around 3am while the Kunsthal Museum was showing avant-garde art work by more than 150 artists from the Triton Foundation, during their 20th anniversary celebrations. Even though the alarms were activated, the art thieves had left the premises by the time police arrived. According to Rotterdam police, “The alarm system in the Kunsthal is supposed to be state of the art”. The director of the Art Loss Register suspects that the most valuable paintings that were stolen could be worth hundreds of millions of euros if legally sold at an auction. The paintings have since been registered as stolen on their database.