Monet Painting Stolen From Polish Museum
September 21, 2000 - 0:0
WARSAW Thieves cut a Claude Monet painting worth about $1 million from its frame in the Polish National Museum and replaced it with a forgery, police said on Tuesday.
"The original painting has been cut from its frame and a false one put in instead," PAP news agency quoted police spokesman Andrzej Borowiak as saying in the western city of Poznan, home of the museum.
Borowiak said the missing picture was "Pourville Beach", painted by the French master in 1882. The forgery was noticed on Tuesday but it was not known when the swap was carried out. Police had alerted all border crossings about the theft. Local news media often report cases of art objects stolen from private collections and poorly guarded churches, but no major theft has occurred for year in the National Museum, its divisions or other state-run galleries.
(Reuter)
"The original painting has been cut from its frame and a false one put in instead," PAP news agency quoted police spokesman Andrzej Borowiak as saying in the western city of Poznan, home of the museum.
Borowiak said the missing picture was "Pourville Beach", painted by the French master in 1882. The forgery was noticed on Tuesday but it was not known when the swap was carried out. Police had alerted all border crossings about the theft. Local news media often report cases of art objects stolen from private collections and poorly guarded churches, but no major theft has occurred for year in the National Museum, its divisions or other state-run galleries.
(Reuter)