INTERPOL issues global alert for Paris art heist

23 May 2010

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Olive Tree near l'Estaque by Georges Braque (1906).

(Interpol)

INTERPOL, the international police agency, issued a global alert on May 22 with images of five paintings which were stolen from the Modern Art Museum in Paris last Thursday.

The move inidcates that French authorities suspect the paintings may have left the country, possibly through an organized crime network.

A burglar entered the museum undetected, evading a security system and three armed guards on duty overnight on May 20.

The five stolen paintings, valued at hundreds of millions of dollars, are Pigeon with Green Peas by Pablo Picasso (1911), Pastoral by Henri Matisse (1906), Olive Tree near l'Estaque by Georges Braque (1906), Woman with Fan by Amedeo Modigliani (1919) and Still Life with Candlestick by Fernand Leger (1922)...

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