Paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh and Gauguin stolen in £1m raid on gallery

UK Independent ^ | April 27, 2003 | Cahal Milmo

[FairOpinion]

Three paintings by Picasso, Van Gogh and Gauguin worth a total of £1m were stolen from a Manchester art gallery over the weekend in a "well planned" theft by professional art thieves, police said.

Staff at the Whitworth Gallery only discovered the three works were missing when they turned up for work at about midday yesterday.

The paintings are believed to have been in the same room at the museum, which has a world-renowned collection of 40,000 works by artists ranging from Lucian Freud to Toulouse Lautrec. Detectives said the thieves had broken into the building at some point after 9pm on Saturday to steal the works, probably to order.

A Greater Manchester Police spokesman said: "This was a well-planned theft. We have launched a major inquiry and are now trying to piece together what happened." Neither detectives nor the museum, which is owned by the University of Manchester, were willing to say where or how the thieves had gained entry but a police source added: "It was a professional job. They clearly knew what they were after."

The stolen works, the largest of which measured 39cm by 53cm, are well known and would be unsellable on the open market. Experts said it was unclear why the three watercolours were stolen from among far more valuable works in the same building. The art historian Andrew Graham-Dixon said: "They could have been stolen by naive thieves who will probably destroy them when they see them on every newspaper front page."

The most valuable were thought to be the work by Picasso, a drawing of three skeletal figures entitled Poverty (1903), and the coloured drawing by Van Gogh, Fortifications of Paris with Houses (1878), completed when the artist was 25. The Gauguin, Tahitian Landscape (1891), is a watercolour sketch which, unusually, has been painted on both sides of the paper and also features a sketch of a man's head. The gallery refused to comment on why it had taken so long for the theft to be discovered.

[FairOpinion]

Funny this isn't plastered on the front pages for weeks, as the Iraqi "looting" was.

I don't know why the American troops didn't prevent this theft. Therefore it's all their fault (/sarcasm)

[martin_fierro]

Ditto that.

Somehow, some way, Rummy will be blamed for this.

[Paul Atreides]

Maybe if the British troops weren't in Iraq, they could have prevented it. </sarcasm>

[michaelt]

I don't know why the American troops didn't prevent this theft. Therefore it's all their fault (/sarcasm)

Damn, you beat me to it.

[Flyer]

I don't know why the American troops didn't prevent this theft.

Dang, if you post the article you aren't supposed to steal my reply.

[Flyer]

Damn, you beat me to it.

A place for like minds to gather.

[muawiyah]

Molly Ivans will spin this as a continuation of the Iraq "looting" and demand that the Marines crack down on law and order in Manchester.

[pbear8]

Quick, someone check Bill and Hil's place!!

[July 4th]

How much do you want to bet that the person who's getting a stolen Van Gogh also is getting a couple of treasures from the Baghdad museum? Looting, my a$$. Both were professional art thefts.

[MotleyGirl70]

Quick, someone check Bill and Hil's place!!

ROTF! That's a good one.

[Unleashed]

Whenever I hear about a high-profile art theft, I always think of "The Great Muppet Caper".

I know, I know, the thieves in that one were after a diamond. But it's close enough. Besides, both of the thefts occured in England.

Man, I feel really old now that I have to remember back to the days when I used to watch the Muppets.

[randita]

Man, I feel really old now that I have to remember back to the days when I used to watch the Muppets.

You don't know what old is. I remember back to the days when MY KIDS used to watch the muppets. Old is "Mighty Mouse".

[nicmarlo]

Why weren't the military posted around the museum? There are precious treasures and the Government should have known better than to trust the citizens with these valuables.

[Lauratealeaf]

Why weren't the military posted around the museum? There are precious treasures and the Government should have known better than to trust the citizens with these valuables.

Oh no! Theresa must be devastated! Now who will she blame? Guess the poor folks of England are not getting their money's worth with the fire and police departments.

[nicmarlo]

.....

[nicmarlo]

see my #15....I'm sending in the military....better late than never, like in Iraq, ya know? : )

[FairOpinion]

Cute! :)

[Lauratealeaf]

LOL! The article is kind of silly. First they state that it was a professional job, then they write that the thieves must be naive because of the art that they chose to steal. They fear that because of the nature of the paintings they are not resellable but i think some rich Parisian won't mind.

[Theresa]

"Oh no! Theresa must be devastated! Now who will she blame? Guess the poor folks of England are not getting their money's worth with the fire and police departments."

Get over it.

[nothingnew]

OK...What did Sean Connery and Catherine Zeta Jones know, and when did they know it?

FMCDH