Stolen Cezanne for $ 110 million discovered in Belgrade

The combined efforts of Serbian and Swiss policemen revealed a masterpiece of Paul Cezanne stolen from a museum in Switzerland in 2008. According to official information, 4 people were taken into custody trying to sell the canvas.

Paul Cezanne - Boy in a Red Vest

On April 12, a representative of the Serbian police in Belgrade opens a bag seized from a vehicle that was searched in search of Paul Cezanne’s painting “A Boy in a Red Vest”. Photo taken on the basis of materials provided by the Serbian Ministry of the Interior. The canvas of the French impressionist, Paul Cezanne, “The Boy in the Red Vest,” was stolen from a private museum in Switzerland in 2008. It was one of the largest thefts in Europe, which was discovered in Serbia. According to the police, three were arrested in connection with the crime.

During a conference in Belgrade, government officials showed a video where police arrest one of four suspects in a suburb of Belgrade and discover a picture under the skin of a black minibus. Showing obvious joy at the successful raids that took place on Wednesday and Thursday, the authorities demonstrated the “Boy in a red vest” in the company of two Serbian police officers armed with machine guns.

Later, one of the Swiss experts confirmed that the painting found belongs to the brush of Paul Cezanne and that it was stolen along with three other paintings by Claude Monet, Vincent van Gogh and Edgar Degas from the collection of Emil Georg Bürle in Zurich. According to criminal prosecutors, the museum also confirmed that the painting is an original painting by Cezanne. The work, estimated at 100 million Swiss francs (110 million dollars), was stolen by three masked armed intruders who spoke German with a Slavic accent. This theft was the largest abduction of paintings in the history of modern Europe.

“I consider this operation, carried out together with the Swiss police, to be truly impressive,” said Miljko Radisavljevic, a spokesman for the Serbian Organized Crime Unit. He said that four men, including the leader of the embezzlement group, were arrested during raids in Belgrade and the regional center of Čačak.

Soon after the theft on February 10, 2008, Monet’s Poppy Field near Veteya and Van Gogh’s Flowering Almond Branches were found intact in a car parked at a psychiatric clinic in Zurich. According to the Serbian police, about a year later, “Louis Lepig and his daughter” by Degas, worth about 10 million francs (11 million dollars), were returned to the museum after 400 thousand euros were paid to the anonymous author.

The Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dacic, said police raids planned back in 2010 were carried out after suspected thefts decided to bring Cezanne’s painting to a wealthy Serb who agreed to buy it for $ 4.6 million. Dacic notes that the detainees found weapons and about $ 2 million in cash. “Of course, they could not sell the painting at its real price,” says Dacic. “This is a curious fact regarding not only this masterpiece.” He said that one of those arrested was the leader of the theft group, and three others were declared accomplices. According to Dacic, they are facing a trial in Serbia.

Art experts suggested that the abductors took advantage of the weak security system in the Swiss museum without thinking about specific paintings and how hard it would be to sell such famous works. During their raid on Sunday, almost before the museum closed, the robbers seized the first canvases that came to hand, ignoring the most expensive painting exhibited in the hall - "Self-portrait with a palette", insured for 90 million francs (98 million dollars).