Missing Matisse: Valuable works stolen from Dutch gallery

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Published time: October 16, 2012 10:31
Edited time: October 16, 2012 18:39

Seven masterpieces worth millions of dollars, including Henri Matisses’ Reading Girl in White and Yellow, Picasso's Harlequin Head and Monet's Waterloo Bridge, have been stolen from Rotterdam's Kunsthal art gallery in an overnight burglary.

­The theft is said to be one of the largest in years in the Netherlands, AP reported.

A police spokeswoman said investigators were reviewing videotapes of the theft, which took place in the middle of the night, at around 3 a.m. local time. Police have yet to make clear how the paintings were stolen.

According to the Telegraaf newspaper, a selection of paintings were stolen from the Avant-Gardes’ exhibition which was showing paintings from the Triton Foundation collection.

The exhibition opened in early October as part of the gallery’s 20th anniversary celebrations.

The stolen works were Monet's Charing Cross Bridge, Paul Gauguin's Girl in Front of Open Window, Meyer de Haan's Self-Portrait and Lucian Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed.

The Kunsthal has described the Triton collection as one which “comprises representative works by the most important and influential artists of the late nineteenth century to the present day”.