At Zurich Museum, a Theft of 4 Masterworks - New York Times

ZURICH — Three men wearing ski masks walked into a private museum here in daylight, grabbed four 19th-century masterpieces, tossed them into a van and sped off, pulling off one of the largest and most audacious art robberies of all time. It was the second multimillion-dollar art heist in Switzerland in less than a week.Switzerland was stunned, not just by the loss of half a dozen masterpieces by the likes of Picasso and Monet but, based on police reports emerging Monday, by the seeming ease with which they disappeared. On Sunday, the three men who entered the E. G. Bührle Collection here took four paintings — a Cézanne, a Degas, a van Gogh and a Monet together worth an estimated $163 million — but not the most valuable works in the collection. The four just happened to be hanging in the same room. The Wednesday before, in a nighttime theft in the nearby town of Pfäffikon, thieves stole two Picassos worth an estimated $4.4 million. The twin robberies have focused attention on art theft as nothing has done since criminals in Norway stole the iconic painting “The Scream,” as well as “The Madonna,” by Munch in August 2004. The Zurich theft was “probably the biggest art robbery in Europe,” according to Marco Cortesi, spokesman for the Zurich police, but did not appear to be the largest in history.