Toronto police are investigating after three paintings by Quebec artist Pierre Gauvreau were stolen from a gallery on the weekend.

The acrylic paintings by the 87-year-old abstract artist were stolen from Gallery Gevik after thieves used a rock to break through the front window early Sunday morning, according to police.

The gallery, located in downtown Toronto's posh Yorkville neighbourhood, had opened its retrospective of nearly 30 Gauvreau paintings spanning his career on Saturday. The show is being held to mark the 30th anniversary of his first solo exhibit in Toronto.

The three works — City in turmoil, Ballad for John Wayne and Night caught between daylight — are valued at more than $50,000 in total.

According to Gauvreau's wife, Janine Carreau, the works are valuable because of how he used colour in them.

"These are rare," she said. "He's known to a be a very good colourist. He plays with colour all the time."

A follower of Paul-Émile Borduas and a signatory of Quebec's famed mid-century anti-establishment Refus Global manifesto, Gauvreau's artistic contemporaries include Jean-Paul Riopelle and others of the Automatistes. He has also worked in television as a writer, director and producer.