Early on Tuesday morning, a slew of paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in the Netherlands. The paintings were worth millions and millions in total euros—perhaps even hundreds of millions—and included works by Monet, Picasso, and Matisse.
The robbery occurred at 3 a.m. in the morning, in an area that was supposedly covered by a “state of the art alarm.” Rotterdam police officer Roland Ekkers told BBC News the police are currently going by the evidence that the system was circumvented in some way.
"The alarm system in the Kunsthal is supposed to be state of the art. We've got no reason to believe that it's not but somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out."
It’s no surprise a museum that nice would have all the best equipment, and I’m sort of envisioning a Thomas Crown Affair sort of stunt used to nab some of the most important pieces in the collection. The Kunsthal Museum is an art space with no permanent collection, and at the time of the painting abduction, the Triton Foundation was featuring the collection in the space. Seven paintings are missing, including 2 by Monet, the aforementioned Picasso and Matisse paintings, one by Freud, and one by Gaugin. Despite the in-an-out nature of the artwork in the house, the police say the thieves were very well-prepared for the job (which is kind of a ‘duh’ observation, considering the thieves have gotten away with the act thus far).
Pop Blend will keep you posted as the police continue to work to apprehend the dastardly thieves.
