Case · Theft
The Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris Theft
Five masterpieces and the 'Spiderman' burglar
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Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
In 2010 a lone burglar removed five paintings — Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Léger, Modigliani — from the Paris Museum of Modern Art. The thief was caught; the paintings never resurfaced.
Vjéran Tomic, nicknamed 'Spiderman' for his climbing skills, entered through a window whose alarm had been out of service, and cut five canvases from their frames overnight.
Tomic and two accomplices were later convicted, but they claimed the paintings had been discarded in panic and destroyed. Their true fate is unknown, and their loss is counted among the most valuable in French history.