Museums are generally some of the safest, most secure buildings in the world. The more valuable the artwork within, the more secure the museum. However, museums still get robbed with alarming frequency. The latest museum to get knocked over is the National Museum of Modern Art in Paris, France, where thieves made off with over $500 million dollars worth of modern art masterpieces by the biggest names in art history.
Among the works stolen were Henri Matisse’s La pastorale, Georges Braque’s L‘olivier pres de l’Estaque, Amadeo Modigliani’s La femme a l’eventail, Fernand Leger’s Nature morte aux chandeliers, and the crown jewel of any successful art robbery, a Pablo Picasso piece called Le pigeon aux petits pois. Police say that, in cases such as these, art thieves often have help on the inside of museums thanks to lowly-paid museum workers and security guards willing to look the other way until the art is gone.
Tags: Paris, France, National Museum of Modern Art, 500 million dollars in paintings stolen, Picasso, Matisse, Modigliani, Braque, Fernand Leger, modern art stolen, museum robbery, stolen art