Picasso among Spanish 5-million euro art heist

ASTANA. December 2. KAZINFORM About 30 art works by artists including Pablo Picasso, worth a total of 5 million euros (6.5 million dollars), have been stolen in one of Spain's biggest modern art robberies, police said Thursday, Kazinform refers to Trend News.

Most of the works belonged to Spanish galleries and were returning from Germany, where they had been on display at a gallery in Cologne.

The sculptures, lithographies and paintings included one work by Picasso, several by Colombian master Fernando Botero, eleven works by Basque scultor Eduardo Chillida, and others by other Spaniards such as Antonio Saura or Antoni Tapies.

The works were inside a lorry parked inside an industrial warehouse in Getafe near Madrid.

The thieves broke into the warehouse and had no trouble entering the lorry, the keys of which had been left in its door.

The lorry was found empty three days after the robbery, which occurred on Saturday.

The thieves apparently knew what they were looking for, arousing the suspicion that they had a helper within the transport companies, police said.

Most of the stolen art works were insured, Kazinform cites Trend News. See www.en.trend.az