Four Paintings Stolen in Zurich

Four paintings by Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Paul Cézanne and Vincent van Gogh were stolen from Zurich, Switzerland's E.G. Bührle Collection on February 10, 2008.

The Associated Press and Reuters reported on February 11, 2008 that four Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings worth $164.2 million were stolen on February 10 by three armed and ski-masked thieves from the E.G. Bührle Collection in Zurich, Switzerland. The works are:

• Viscount Lepic and His Daughters (1871) by Edgar Degas (1834-1917);
• Poppies Near Vetheuil (1879) by Claude Monet (1849-1926);
• The Boy in the Red Vest (1888) by Paul Cézanne (1839-1906); and
• Blooming Chestnut Branches (1890) by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

The three darkly attired thieves with handguns entered the museum in broad daylight a half-hour before its scheduled closing time. One spoke German with a Slavic accent. With personnel forced to the floor, two of the gunmen removed the four works from behind glass. The three robbers then sped away with the paintings in a white vehicle. Nobody was harmed during the heist.

A reward of 100,000 Swiss francs is being offered for pertinent information leading to the thieves' arrest.

The Bührle Collection

German-born Swiss industrialist Emil Georg Bührle (1890-1956) sold anti-aircraft weaponry to the Nazis during World War Two. Bührle collected his Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works between 1951 and his death and displayed them in a gated villa near his former home. The museum's most valuable painting is the stolen canvas by Paul Cézanne.

Update: Reuters reported on February 19, 2008 that Poppies Near Vetheuil (1879) by Claude Monet (1849-1926) and Blooming Chestnut Trees (1890) by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) were recovered from a parked car outside Zurich, Switzerland's University Psychiatric Clinic.