Rome
A trio of masked and armed robbers have made off with three of the most important works from the National Gallery of Modern Art in Rome after locking guards in a lavatory.
Italian art expert Achille Bonito Oliva estimated the combined value of the paintings - two by Vincent Van Gogh and another by Paul Cezanne - could be #21m.
The Cezanne, Le Cabanon de Jourdan, an unfinished painting, dates from 1906, the year he died.
The Van Goghs - The Gardener and L'Arlesienne - are also late works. Van Gogh painted L'Arlesienne, in early 1890, the year of his suicide; The Gardener was painted a year before, while he was at an asylum in St Remy, France.
Museum curator Sandra Pinto said the paintings would be almost impossible to sell because of their fame. She said the thieves might be acting on commission from a private collector or perhaps they planned to make a ransom demand.
Italian news agencies later reported that police were investigating a telephone call in which a man claimed to have the paintings.
''We will let you know the conditions, political as well, to have the Van Goghs and the Cezanne back,'' a male caller was quoted as telling the Adn Kronos news agency.
The museum's closed-circuit surveillance system had broken down a few days earlier and was not working during the robbery.
Security was largely in the hands of three unarmed guards, and what officials at a news conference described as an alarm system with several ''dead zones'' that was not connected to any police station.
The guards said they were forced at gunpoint to disable the alarm system, and herded into the lavatory an hour after the museum closed on Tuesday night.
Officials think the robbers entered the museum as visitors, then hid inside until it closed.
About two hours later, people at a cafe next door were locking up and gave the guards a call to see if they wanted coffee. When they got no answer, they went to the museum and saw a door ajar. After a call to a police emergency phone line went unanswered, they flagged down a passing police car.-AP
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article