Gang robs Zurich of top paintings

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BBC

An armed gang has stolen four paintings worth some $160m (£82m) by the Impressionists Cezanne, Degas, Van Gogh and Monetfrom a museum in Zurich.

Swiss police said the robbery happened at the Emil Buehrle Collection on Sunday. The three thieves are at large. The gang threatened a security guard with guns before seizing the works. It is one of the world's biggest art thefts in the last 20 years.

It comes just days after two Picasso paintings were stolen near Zurich.

The four paintings stolen on Sunday are: Poppies near Vetheuil, by Claude Monet (1879), Count Lepic and his Daughters, by Edgar Degas (1871), Chestnut in Bloom, by Vincent Van Gogh (1890) and Boy in a Red Jacket, by Paul Cezanne (1888), police said. The gang put the paintings into a white vehicle parked outside the museum in central Zurich. Police later described the robbery as spectacular, the BBC's Imogen Foulkes in Switzerland says.

The famous Emil Buehrle Collection contains some of the world's most important impressionist works. Picasso's oil paintings - Head of Horse and Glass and Pitcher - were taken from an exhibition in the town of Pfaeffikon last Wednesday.