巴黎博物館5幅名畫被偷

巴黎現(xiàn)代藝術博物館5幅稀世名畫19日夜間被盜，失竊的5幅畫分別為畢加索的《鴿子與青豆》、亨利•馬蒂斯的油畫《田園曲》、喬治•布拉克的《埃斯塔克附近的橄欖樹》、阿美迪奧•莫迪里阿尼的《執(zhí)扇子的女人》以及萊熱的《靜物與吊燈》，總價值5億歐元（約合6.35億美元）。博物館工作人員次日早晨準備開館時才發(fā)現(xiàn)名畫失竊，隨即便封鎖了博物館以展開進一步調查。據(jù)消息人士透露，案發(fā)現(xiàn)場有窗戶破損，還有一個被鋸開的鎖頭，監(jiān)控攝像頭拍到有人從窗戶進入館內，目前還不能確定是否有人協(xié)同作案。

Five paintings worth 500 million euros, including works by modern masters Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, have been stolen from a Paris museum, officials said Thursday.

The canvases were discovered missing just before the Musee d'Art Moderne was to open, a judicial source and others familiar with the investigation said.

A broken window and a sheared-off padlock suggested that the heist took place overnight Wednesday. Video surveillance cameras recorded one person entering the museum through a window.

It was unclear if more thieves were involved. The museum was kept closed for the investigation.

Besides the Matisse and the Picasso, works by Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani were also plucked from the walls of the city-run museum, one of the most-visited in the French capital.

Their estimated total value was put at 500 million euros (635 million dollars).

The stolen paintings included Picasso's cubist "Dove with Green Peas," which the Spanish artist created in 1912, and his French contemporary Matisse's "Pastoral" from 1905.

The others were Braque's "Olive Tree near Estaque", Modigliani's "Woman with a Fan" and Leger's "Still Life with Candlestick," according to the website of Le Parisien newspaper.

France has seen a growing number of art thefts in recent months.

In January, about 30 paintings -- including some by Picasso and Henri Rousseau -- were stolen from a private villa in the Cote d'Azur, with a total estimated value of around one million euros.

On New Year's Eve, a pastel by Edgar Degas disappeared from the Cantini museum in Marseille, also in the south of France. The 1877 painting worth 800,000 euros had been lent for an exhibition by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

It had been unscrewed from the wall and there was no evidence of a break-in, police said, indicating the thief or thieves knew how to get round the museum's security system.

In June last yar, the Picasso Museum in Paris was robbed in broad daylight of a book of drawings by the celebrated 20th century artist, worth an estimated three million euros.

Stolen masterpieces are rarely recovered, but three men are being tried in France for the 2007 theft of three Picassos worth more than 50 million euros from the Paris home of his grand-daughter Diana Widmaier-Picasso.

The paintings were found after a five-month investigation.

Located in the posh 16th arrondissement, a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower, the Musee d'Art Moderne is home to more than 8,000 20th century works of art.