Wednesday

Swiss art heist worth $163 million

On Sunday three robbers walked into Zurich’s E.G. Burhle Collection and stole four 19th century masterpieces worth a combined $163 million. Their plunder — a Degas, van Gogh, Cézanne and a Monet — is the second multi-million dollar art theft in Switzerland in less than a week; last Wednesday night in Pfäffikon, two thieves made off with two Picassos worth $4.4 million.

With almost 200 works, the E.G. Burhle collection is quite possibly the world’s largest privately owned collection of French impressionists. The collection has been controversial however, on account of the fact that the owner, Emile George Burhle, was a major arms supplier to both the Allied and Axis powers during World War II. But despite controversy, the collection is admired, both by visitors and thieves alike. With its relaxed atmosphere — the collection is housed in a quiet 19th century villa with no metal detectors as the hallway is to narrow to accommodate them — getting out with four paintings may have seemed easy as the thieves sat scheming for their crime.

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