£430m masterheist: Lone robber in huge art raid… at Paris museum with broken alarm

£20.3m: Picasso's 'Dove with Green Peas', painted in 1912, was among the priceless masterpieces stolen

A lone thief is believed to have carried out one of the most daring – and lucrative – art heists in history yesterday. The ‘burly man’ stole masterpieces worth tens of millions of pounds from a Paris gallery in an early morning raid. He broke into the Museum of Modern Art and made off with works by Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani. Heist: French forensic police transfer an empty frame through a window at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris Museum of Modern Art) after the shocking discovery Heist: French forensic police transfer an empty frame through a window at the Musee d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (Paris Museum of Modern Art) after the shocking discovery yesterday 'Enormous crime': Picasso's 'Dove with Green Peas', painted in 1912, was among the priceless masterpieces stolen £20.3m: Picasso's 'Dove with Green Peas', painted in 1912, was among the priceless masterpieces stolen The haul is reckoned to be worth anything from £170million to £430million – although French officials attempted to play down the value of the stolen paintings. Last night it emerged that, incredibly, the gallery’s alarm system had been broken in some rooms since March 30. The security system operator had ordered spare parts to fix it but had not yet received the equipment from the supplier, officials admitted. There were also fears the thief may have had people ‘on the inside’ helping him. There were three security guards in the building at the time, but each has told detectives that they ‘saw nothing’. Confirming the raid was the most costly in the history of French art, Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe called it ‘an intolerable attack on Paris’s universal cultural heritage’. CCTV footage caught the ‘heavily disguised, burly figure’ jumping through a smashed window at around 6.50am. He is then believed to have forced a lock to gain access to the most valuable works in the building, which lies just across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower. The canvases are thought to have been cut from their frames and taken away in a bundle. All that remains: Police officers search for clues as they pack up the frames of the stolen paintings outside the Paris Museum of Modern Art today All that remains: Police officers search for clues as they pack up the frames of the stolen paintings outside the Paris Museum of Modern Art yesterday Some Paris officials put the value of the works at under £100million. But art historians said they could be worth four times that. Earlier this month a Picasso sold for a world record of £70million at auction. ‘They are wonderful works – the very best that the artists produced,’ a source close to the inquiry said. ‘Police are speaking to all of us in case people on the inside helped the burglar.’ Because the paintings – detailed right – are so well known, it is thought it would be impossible to sell them on the open market. The Modern Art Museum has been a Paris landmark since it was opened in 1961, and had been considered one of the most secure in Europe. Yesterday it was shut to all visitors with a sign on the main door reading: ‘Closed for technical reasons.’ Meanwhile officers from the Brigade de Repression du Banditisme, the French police’s elite armed robbery unit, were scouring the building for clues. The suspected thief was captured on one of numerous CCTV cameras inside the building. It was unclear why those monitoring the screens did not summon police as soon as they saw him. ‘He was heavily disguised with a hood and face covering,’ said an officer at the scene. Insiders working for low pay in the gallery are often suspected of helping art criminals, said the officer. Sometimes those involved leave clues suggesting a break-in, when in fact they simply used keys, he added. France has traditionally been at the centre of the international art theft underworld, with paintings regularly stolen to order. The total world trade in stolen art is thought to be worth £4billion. In 2007 two paris Picassos worth £50million were stolen from the Paris home of the artist’s granddaughter, Diana Widmaier. Twelve Picasso paintings valued at around £17million were stolen from the French Riviera villa of another of his grandchildren, Marina Picasso, in 1989. Picasso is the most stolen artist in the world because of his prolific output, recognisable signature and valuable works. There are more than 500 missing Picassos on the London-based Art Loss Register of stolen works. The most famous art raid of all was the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa at the Louvre in Paris. Italian immigrant Vincenzo Perugia hid in the museum overnight before getting away with the priceless painting by Leonardo da Vinci. It was finally returned in 1914. The largest art theft – unless it is officially eclipsed by yesterday’s Paris raid – happened in Boston in 1990 when raiders took 13 works, worth a total of around £400million, from the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum. A reward of £3.5million is still offered for information leading to their return. Source: Daily Mail