Rotterdam Police Gets 40 Tips on Picasso, Monet Paintings Theft

Dutch police have received 40 tips on the theft of seven paintings, including works by Pablo Picasso and Claude Monet, from the Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam four days ago.

“We’re investigating the information,” the Rotterdam- Rijnmond police said on its Twitter account today. In video footage shown on Dutch television yesterday, two thieves are seen rushing in to the museum through a side door, returning in less than two minutes with large parcels on their backs. The footage generated five tips, the police said.

The Rotterdam burglary ranks among the most spectacular art heists in recent decades. Comparable incidents are the 2010 theft of five paintings -- including works by Picasso and Matisse -- from the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris, and the 1990 burglary from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston of art worth an estimated $500 million.

The paintings stolen from Rotterdam’s Kunsthal were Picasso’s “Tete d’Arlequin;” Monet’s “Waterloo Bridge, London” and “Charing Cross Bridge, London;” Freud’s “Woman with Eyes Closed;” Matisse’s “la Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune;” Gauguin’s “Femme devant une fenetre ouverte, dite la Fiancee,” and Meyer de Haan’s “Autoportrait.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Fred Pals in Amsterdam at fpals@bloomberg.net

To contact the editor responsible for this story: Dick Schumacher at dschumacher@bloomberg.net

"Autoportrait" by Meyer de Haan. Source: Police Rotterdam/AP via Bloomberg