Copyright Law

"Might have been the largest art theft in Europe"

By Intellectual Property Law, Esq.

"Armed robbers stole four important paintings by van Gogh, Monet, Degas and Cézanne from a museum in Zurich, the Swiss authorities announced Monday .... Three thieves, wearing dark clothes and ski masks, walked into the Emile Bührle Foundation, a private collection housed a couple of miles outside of Zurich?s city center ..., around 4:30 p.m. on Sunday, a short while before the museum was due to close. ... While one held a pistol and ordered visitors and staff members to lie on the floor in the main room of the museum, the two other men removed the four paintings from the wall: Monet?s 'Poppy Field at Vetheuil,' 'Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter' by Edgar Degas, Van Gogh?s 'Blooming Chestnut Branches,' and Cézanne?s 'Boy in the Red Waistcoat.' Their total worth is estimated at $163 million."

Why would someone steal such well-known works? Derek Fincham can think of four possibilities.

Lee Rosenbaum reminds us of a previous occasion when the Bührle Collection was in the news.

Full post as published by The Art Law Blog on February 11, 2008 (boomark / email).