$ 2 Million Stolen From Pretoria Museum

Three men under the guise of an art teacher and two of his students stole paintings worth about $ 2 million from the Pretoria Art Museum in broad daylight.

The robbers paid for an entrance ticket, which costs a little more than $ 1, and asked the museum staff to show them the six most valuable works at the exhibition.

After their request was fulfilled, the criminals, threatening with weapons, tied up the museum worker and, having removed the paintings from the walls of the museum, disappeared in an unknown direction.

“They knew exactly what they wanted, and almost certainly they received an order to steal these paintings,” said Pieter de Necker, a spokesman for the city.

Thus, the following were stolen from the Museum: “Cat and Petunias” Maggie Laubser, “Hottentot Chief” Hugo Naude, “Eland and Bird” D.Kh. Pirnif (JH Pierneef), Street Scene by Gerard Sekoto and Fishing Boats by Irma Stern.

At the crime scene, the robbers threw another picture of Irma Stern’s “Two Malay Musicians”, which is estimated at 12 million rand (about 1.4 million US dollars). The picture simply did not fit into the vehicle of criminals.

Anna Sidorova