It sounds like a French heist film-to-be starring maybe Jean Reno and Mathieu Kassovitz, and it ended with the Paris Museum of Modern Art losing five major paintings to a hooded, masked, after-hours bandit. I wrote a Suite101 blog entry about the art theft earlier today, and pictured here is the 1911 Picasso work that was stolen -- Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois. The paintings were said to be slit from their frames for faster access, which also means permanent damage to the canvas edges. Still, to make off with a Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Leger and Braque in one fell swoop is formidable for an art thief -- but truly just awful for the museum.
