巴黎博物馆5幅名画被偷

巴黎现代艺术博物馆5幅稀世名画19日夜间被盗，失窃的5幅画分别为毕加索的《鸽子与青豆》、亨利•马蒂斯的油画《田园曲》、乔治•布拉克的《埃斯塔克附近的橄榄树》、阿美迪奥•莫迪里阿尼的《执扇子的女人》以及莱热的《静物与吊灯》，总价值5亿欧元（约合6.35亿美元）。博物馆工作人员次日早晨准备开馆时才发现名画失窃，随即便封锁了博物馆以展开进一步调查。据消息人士透露，案发现场有窗户破损，还有一个被锯开的锁头，监控摄像头拍到有人从窗户进入馆内，目前还不能确定是否有人协同作案。

Five paintings worth 500 million euros, including works by modern masters Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso, have been stolen from a Paris museum, officials said Thursday.

The canvases were discovered missing just before the Musee d'Art Moderne was to open, a judicial source and others familiar with the investigation said.

A broken window and a sheared-off padlock suggested that the heist took place overnight Wednesday. Video surveillance cameras recorded one person entering the museum through a window.

It was unclear if more thieves were involved. The museum was kept closed for the investigation.

Besides the Matisse and the Picasso, works by Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani were also plucked from the walls of the city-run museum, one of the most-visited in the French capital.

Their estimated total value was put at 500 million euros (635 million dollars).

The stolen paintings included Picasso's cubist "Dove with Green Peas," which the Spanish artist created in 1912, and his French contemporary Matisse's "Pastoral" from 1905.

The others were Braque's "Olive Tree near Estaque", Modigliani's "Woman with a Fan" and Leger's "Still Life with Candlestick," according to the website of Le Parisien newspaper.

France has seen a growing number of art thefts in recent months.

In January, about 30 paintings -- including some by Picasso and Henri Rousseau -- were stolen from a private villa in the Cote d'Azur, with a total estimated value of around one million euros.

On New Year's Eve, a pastel by Edgar Degas disappeared from the Cantini museum in Marseille, also in the south of France. The 1877 painting worth 800,000 euros had been lent for an exhibition by the Musee d'Orsay in Paris.

It had been unscrewed from the wall and there was no evidence of a break-in, police said, indicating the thief or thieves knew how to get round the museum's security system.

In June last yar, the Picasso Museum in Paris was robbed in broad daylight of a book of drawings by the celebrated 20th century artist, worth an estimated three million euros.

Stolen masterpieces are rarely recovered, but three men are being tried in France for the 2007 theft of three Picassos worth more than 50 million euros from the Paris home of his grand-daughter Diana Widmaier-Picasso.

The paintings were found after a five-month investigation.

Located in the posh 16th arrondissement, a stone's throw from the Eiffel Tower, the Musee d'Art Moderne is home to more than 8,000 20th century works of art.