[MSN] update Zurich art haul

[MSN]

Zurich Gang Grabs $163 Million Art Haul From Museum (Update3)

By Marc Wolfensberger and Linda Sandler

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) -- Armed robbers stole works by Cezanne, Degas, Monet
and Van Gogh valued at more than $163 million from a Zurich museum, in
Switzerland's biggest art heist and the second theft of paintings in the
country in less than a week.

Three armed robbers wearing ski masks took the impressionist and
post-impressionist paintings from the E.G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich's
Eighth District in an afternoon raid yesterday, 30 minutes before it closed,
police said today. They described the attack as ``spectacular.''

``On the open market, these pictures are unsellable,'' Lukas Gloor, director
of the museum, said at a news conference today. Marco Cortesi, a Zurich
police spokesman, confirmed the incident was the ``biggest-ever art
robbery'' in Switzerland.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation puts losses from art and cultural
property crime at $6 billion a year. The biggest U.S. art heist was of some
$300 million of Rembrandts and other works stolen from Boston's Isabella
Stewart Gardner Museum, in 1990, according to the FBI Web site.

Monet's ``Poppies Near Vetheuil,'' Degas's ``Count Lepic and his
Daughters,'' Van Gogh's ``Blossoming Chestnut Branches'' and Cezanne's ``Boy
in the Red Vest'' are the four paintings stolen, Swiss police said. A reward
of 100,000 Swiss francs ($90,690) is being offered for information leading
to the recovery of the paintings.

One of the men threatened personnel with a pistol, forcing them to the
floor, while the other two robbers grabbed the paintings from the exhibition
hall. One of the robbers spoke German with a Slavic accent, the police said.

Gang Prepared

``It sounds like there was a gang prepared to do anything to get the art,''
said Chris Marinello, the London-based general counsel of the Art Loss
Register, which listed the stolen paintings on its data base after being
approached by the museum.

``You could infer that from the number of people involved in the theft and
the fact that it was well-planned, a half hour before the museum was about
to close,'' Marinello said.

The culprits didn't steal more because of the weight of the framed
paintings, Gloor said. The museum had adequate security and was powerless
against an armed robbery, he said.

``The choice of the room was very targeted while the choice of the pictures
was in the line they were hanging'' and nearest to the door, Gloor said,
adding that he couldn't say whether the culprits targeted specifically the
most valuable picture, the Cezanne.

Reward Money

Criminals may use art to obtain the reward money, or sell it to raise cash
for illicit activities such as weapons traffic, Marinello said. While the
paintings can't easily be sold in the open market, ``there is always someone
who is willing to buy them at a discount and hold them.'' Later, the art may
be used by the buyer to raise cash from somebody else in the black market,
he said.

If the thieves do try to sell the paintings, they will probably do so in
another country, perhaps through a smaller dealer or auction house. Their
job will be harder because the art is listed as stolen by the Art Loss
Register, Marinello said.

The bill could have been heavier for the museum, which houses some 200
paintings, including seven Van Goghs, seven Cezannes, six Degas and five
Monets.

Emil Buerhle, who studied history of art in Germany, took over machinery
maker Schweizerische Werkzeugmaschinenfabrik Oerlikon, near Zurich, in the
late 1920s. He became a Swiss citizen in 1936. The company changed its name
to Oerlikon-Buehrle and expanded into weapons. It later drew fire for its
role during World War II.

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