Four Famous Paintings Stolen in Zurich

Four Famous Paintings Stolen in Zurich

Swiss police were scrambling Monday in search of three masked men who stole four Impressionist paintings worth about $163 million (180 million Swiss francs) Sunday in a heist police characterized as "spectacular."

The paintings taken in what officials described it as a "spectacular art robbery" are Cezanne's The Boy in the Red Vest (1890), Degas' Viscount Lepic and His Daughters (1871), Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil (1880) and Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches (1890).

One of the men threatened personnel at the museum's front door with a pistol and forced them to the ground, police said, while the other two men went into an exhibition room and stole four oil paintings by Paul Cezanne, Edgar Degas, Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh.

Sources:  http://edition.cnn.com/2008/SHOWBIZ/02/11/art.theft/?imw=Y&iref=mpstoryemail

http://www.thegmanifesto.com 

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080211/ap_on_re_eu/switzerland_art_robbery;_ylt=AgC4Ix_1Vpc_sYZQBiQci8us0NUE