Picasso Museum Heist

About noon, three armed men paid the entrance fee of £1.25 and immediately went to the second-floor art gallery where Picasso's were being exhibited. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" for the specific art works, said Youssef Abou Chain, head of the police's organised crime unit in Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works. The robbery took just 10 minutes and the art museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces - frames and all - out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors. In December, Picasso's Portrait Of Suzanne Bloch and a painting by influential Brazilian artist Candido Portinari were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found on January 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of the city. One of the suspects in that heist - a former TV chef - turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody. (For full source and full article click the Headline). Irish Art