Picasso Drawings Valued at $9.8 Million and $14 Million Stolen from Paris Museum

Picasso Drawings Valued at $9.8 Million and $14 Million Stolen from Paris Museum

http://www.artdaily.org/index.asp?int_sec=2&int_new=31357

PARIS.- (EFE) A sketchbook containing drawings by Spanish artist Pablo Picasso valued at between 7 million and 10 million euros ($9.8 million and $14 million) was stolen from the Picasso Museum in Paris, police told Efe Tuesday.

The sketchbook contains about 30 drawings and was stolen either on Monday or Tuesday, during which time the museum was closed to the general public, without any break-in being registered at the museum, which is located in a 17th century baroque palace, police said.
Museum workers discovered the theft when they were making an inventory.
The sketchbook was seen Monday in the glass case in which it is displayed but on Tuesday it was not there, police said.
The glass display case was locked but no specific tool was required to open it, the Culture Ministry said.
Beside the case where the sketchbook was are drawings done in lead pencil on paper by Picasso in two phases, between 1917 and 1918 and between 1923 and 1924, the Culture Ministry said.

The sketchbook contained 33 drawings collected in a 16x24 centimeter (6.3x9.5 inches) format and its cover has the inscription "Album" in gilded letters, the ministry said.
The museum was open on Tuesday in a special arrangement for residents of District 3 in Paris invited to the facility by its mayor.

The Picasso Museum is being remodeled and so the most important works housed there have been loaned to other institutions with the twofold aim of facilitating the refurbishing work and financing it.
Musée national Picasso Paris
http://www.musee-picasso.fr/