January 26, 2012 · 0 Comments
weather.info/home/index.cfm?city=Athens,%20Greece&latlon=37.97945,23.71622&u=c”>Athens, Greece (AHN) – Thieves carried out a well organized predawn heist at Greece’s largest museum Monday morning and made off with two oil paintings and a sketch.
Taken in the early morning raid at weather.info/home/index.cfm?city=Athens,%20Greece&latlon=37.97945,23.71622&u=c”>Athens‘ National Art Gallery were Pablo Picasso’s 1939 “Woman’s Head” and Dutch painter Piet Mondrian’s “Mill.”
Picasso donated “Woman’s Head,” an oil painting on canvas, to Greece in 1949 in recognition of the country’s resistance to Nazi Germany.
The thieves, with an apparent appreciation for fine art, also took a sketch by Italian painter Guglielmo Caccia, donated to the gallery in 1907.
The burglars entered through a balcony door. They intentionally set off alarms prior to the theft to cause the guards to disable at least one alarm.
The entire expertly orchestrated crime took just seven minutes. Police are still investigating if any other art work is missing and cannot put an exact value on the rare missing pieces.
By Emma Brown