The hopeless art of stealing paintings

According to informed sources in the London insurance industry, the robbery on Sunday of paintings by Monet, Degas, Van Gogh and Cezanne from the Emil Buhrle Foundation in Zurich was carried out by Albanian criminals. Three armed men entered the gallery, took the four works and drove away in a white car with the paintings hanging out of the boot. There have been no arrests.

Although security in the gallery is said to be tough and visitors are known to be followed by plain-clothed security staff as they proceed around the rooms, there is little you can do against armed men.

The fact that the four paintings were hanging together - and that more valuable works were left behind - suggests the thieves simply took what they could and that the art was not stolen "to order". It was the second art theft within a week in Switzerland. Two Picassos were stolen on February 6 in the town of Pfaeffikon.

The four paintings are insured for between £50 and £80m in Switzerland and it appears from sources at Lloyds that there is little or no exposure in London.

A London loss adjustor specialising in art theft, told The First Post that if the paintings have not been recovered within the first week, it is likely that they will disappear for some considerable time. "Paintings of this quality and fame are difficult to sell openly. Often the criminals involved take them because they believe that they will find a market amongst rich private collectors. This is a myth."

They are sometimes stolen to boost the status of the thieves within criminal society. This is particularly common amongst Irish criminals who specialise in art theft. Often the paintings resurface some years after they have been taken and thieves further down the food chain who have acquired them are then quickly caught.

Statistically it is not a profitable type of crime. Important works of art like Da Vinci's Madonna and the Yarnwinder, stolen in 2003, and Edvard Munch's The Scream, stolen from a museum in Oslo one year later, have both been recovered.

The four paintings now missing are: The Boy in the Red Vest by Paul Cezanne; Blossoming Chestnut Branches by Van Gogh; Poppies Near Vetheuil by Claude Monet; and The Count Lepic and his Daughters by Edgar Degas. The major threat is that they will be damaged or destroyed and lost for ever. ·