Switzerland's Biggest Art Theft Steals Van Gogh, Monet

WONG:
Masked robbers stole four paintings by 19th Century Masters, worth 164 million Swiss francs. Police call it, Switzerland's biggest art theft ever.

STORY:
In broad daylight masked robbers with handguns stole four oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet from the Buerhle Museum in Zurich.

[Marco Cortesi, Zurich Police Spokesman]:
"Last Sunday afternoon, 10th February, shortly before 16.30, three masked, unknown men burst into the building at Zollikerstrasse 172. One of the men threatened the staff at the entrance with a fire gun and forced him to lie on the ground with his head down. The two other men went to the exhibition room at the ground floor and stole four very worthy paintings. The robbers
escaped with four masterpieces by Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monet."

One of the robbers was said to speak German with a Slavic accent, but the police have no leads. They are offering a reward of 100 thousand Swiss francs for information about the robbers.

This is the second robbery in Switzerland's financial capital. Last week two Picasso paintings were stolen from a nearby cultural center. They were valued at about 4.5 million U.S. dollars.

[Dr. Lukas Gloor, Buerhle Foundation Director]:
"The robbers came through this door into the Museum's exhibition room and unhooked the Monet, the Degas, the Van Gogh, and the 'Boy in the Red Vest.' You can see these are four of the most important paintings in our French Impressionist art collection. Monet and his 'Poppies Near Vétheuil,' Edgar Degas' painting of an artist friend with his two
daughters, the world-famous 'Blossoming Chestnut Branches,' which Vincent Van Gogh drew a few weeks before his death in 1890, in the garden of a friend, and finally, the masterpiece of our collection, the 'Boy in the Red Vest,' which ended up in the Buerhle collection in 1948, one of Cezanne's most famous paintings."

The Buehrle Collection is one of the most important assemblies of French impressionism and post-impressionism according to its Web site (www.buehrle.ch).

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