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Monday, 04 March 2013 16:42

Woman Arrested in Connection to Dutch Art Heist

Detail from Pablo Picasso's 'Harlequin Head,' 1971. Detail from Pablo Picasso's 'Harlequin Head,' 1971. Phaidon

A Romanian woman has been arrested in Rotterdam in connection to an art heist that rocked the Netherlands in October 2012. The 19-year-old woman, who is the girlfriend of one of the three suspects currently being held in Romania for alleged involvement in the heist, is thought to have helped the thieves haul the seven stolen masterpieces out of the country.

Police claim that after the robbery, the paintings were taken to a home in Rotterdam where the frames were removed. The paintings were later taken to Romania where prosecutors are investigating the mother of one of the suspects who claims that she burned two of the stolen works.

The robbery, which took place at the Kunsthal museum, was the biggest art theft in two decades in the Netherlands. The stolen works, which are part of the private Triton Foundation collection, include masterpieces by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Claude Monet (1840-1926), Henri Matisse (1869-1954), and Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and are believed to be worth between $66 million and $266 million. Among the masterpieces lifted by the thieves were Picasso’s Harlequin Head (1971), Monet’s Waterloo Bridge, London and Charing Cross Bridge, London (1901), and Matisse’s Reading Girl in White and Yellow (1919).  

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