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Romania/ The Netherlands: Village Of Thieves

September 2, 2013

The people accused of stealing works by world-famous artists last year in Rotterdam are now on trial in Bucharest. In the suspects' home village in eastern Romania just about everyone knows them.

https://p.dw.com/p/19aMf
epa03816966 A cameraman takes a general view while standing near a panel exposing the scientific results of the forensic analysis made on the ash samples of the stolen paintings, supposed to be burned, during a press conference held at the National History Museum, in Bucharest, Romania, 08 August 2013. The forensic report stated that the chances are high that the examined ash remains to belong to the three of the missing paintings. The samples were examined at the request of Romanian authorities in charge with the investigation of paintings stolen in the Netherlands in 2012, at the Forensic Laboratory of the National Museum of Romanian Histrory, in Bucharest, Romania, 23 July 2013. Three Romanian citizens are suspects of having committed a theft of seven paintings from a museum in Rotterdam. During the investigations procedures, apparently the mother of one of the thieves burned the paintings. The stolen paintings were Pablo Picasso's 1971 Harlequin Head; Claude Monet's 1901 Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London; Henri Matisse's 1919 Reading Girl in White and Yellow; Paul Gauguin's 1898 Girl in Front of Open Window; Meyer de Haan's Self-Portrait, around 1890; and Lucian Freud's 2002 work Woman with Eyes Closed. EPA/ROBERT GHEMENT
Image: picture-alliance/dpa

In the Netherlands, it was the art theft of the century. In just two minutes, the robbers stole paintings by Matisse, Monet and Picasso from a special exhibition at the Rotterdam Kunsthal. But afterwards police say the thieves couldn't sell the artworks - so they burned at least some of them, in an attempt to hide evidence of the crime. Regardless of how the trial turns out, a Romanian production company has purchased the rights to make a movie about the crime. Residents of the suspects' home village, Carcaliu, say the group’s members were well-known to them. The stolen artworks are still missing -- but it's not yet clear whether all of them were destroyed.

Police officers investigate the surroundings of Rotterdam's Kunsthal art gallery in the Netherlands October 16, 2012. According to local media, several important works of art of considerable value have been stolen from the gallery in an overnight burglary. Among them were works taken while on display at the Avant-Gardes show featuring paintings from the Triton Foundation collection. A local television station reports that the "Reading Girl" by Henri Matisse was among the paintings stolen. REUTERS/Robin van Lonkhuijsen (NETHERLANDS - Tags: CRIME LAW SOCIETY)
Image: Reuters