Thieves steal masterpieces from Brazil art museum

globeandmail.com ^ | 2/24/06 | Associated Press

[Republicanprofessor]

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil — Gunmen overpowered security guards and stole paintings by Picasso, Dali, Matisse and Monet from a Rio museum Friday, using the cover of a Carnival crowd to make their getaway, Brazilian authorities said.

The thieves entered the Chacara do Ceu museum as a samba band performed on the street outside and stole Pablo Picasso's The Dance, Salvador Dali's The Two Balconies, Henri Matisse's Luxemburg Garden and Claude Monet's Marine.

The paintings were considered the most valuable pieces at the museum but their exact value was not immediately available, said Thais Isel, a spokeswoman for Rio's Public Safety Secretariat.

The four thieves were reported to have used grenades to threaten security guards and people inside the museum, which was open at the time of the heist.

The gunmen forced the guards to shut down the museum's security cameras, then fled while taking advantage of the huge crowd that was following the Carnival band.

Brazil's federal police issued a countrywide alert to try to keep the paintings from leaving the country.

Carnival celebrations in Brazil officially began Friday and continue until Tuesday

[Republicanprofessor]

Pablo Picasso's The Dance and Salvador Dali's The Two Balconies,

Henri Matisse's Luxemburg Garden and Claude Monet's Marine.

My very biased opinion is that the Matisse is not one of his best; clearly an early piece before he simplified his style in 1905. The Picasso doesn't look that great. But the Monet looks lovely, and for those that like Dali, that looks like a good one.

[Republicanprofessor]

Art ping.

Let Sam Cree, Woofie or me know if you want on or off this ping list.

[AnAmericanMother]

I agree, the Matisse is muddy looking. The Picasso looks like one of his con-jobs on the public. I don't think the Dali is one of his better ones -- and I like Dali (have one of his fraudulent lithographs (signed by somebody else in his name) on my wall - but hey it was dirt cheap and I knew what I was getting.) The Monet though is very good and I love the colors.

[dead]

I kinda like the Matisse. Very bold and colorful.

The Monet looks like a rusty pipe watermark on a ceiling.

The Picasso looks like my four-year-old daughter painted it.

[Blind Eye Jones]

There's a gazillion Picassos out there and to threaten to blow yourself up for this lot is stupid. But I believe art terrorism will be on the increase, where in the next 50 years there will be a movement to destroy art. And I don't mean that the destruction itself will be an art movement, although I can see people thinking that way. I mean that there will be world wide terrorism to destroy every last vestige of art within the world. It would be like the Luddites but motivated by a hatred for art that is unworldly. I say this now and I could be wrong of coarse, but art is both one of the weakest and strongest part of our civilization and, like the artist, it is both too good and not good enough for this world. So, in the future, all this confusion will have to go... (sorry if I sound like an idiot).

[Republicanprofessor]

An interesting idea. Of course, I hope it doesn't happen. But I love FR for its exchange of all kinds of ideas; definitely something to think about.

[SunkenCiv]

This wouldn't have happened if US troops hadn't invaded and occupied Brazil due to Bush's lies.