Member Centre: Login | Sign Up

Home
World
Canada
- BC
- Calgary
- Edmonton
- Saskatchewan
- Manitoba
- Thunder Bay
- Sudbury
- Windsor
- Toronto
- Ottawa
- Montreal
- NB
- PEI
- NS
- NL
- North
Politics
Health
Arts & Entertainment
- Music
- Film
- Television
- Books
- Media
- Art & Design
- Theatre
Technology & Science
Money
Consumer Life
Diversions
Weather
Your Voice

LICENSE | EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK |

Armed robbers snatch Magritte work

Last Updated: Thursday, September 24, 2009 | 10:38 AM ET

CBC News

View of the Rene Magritte Museum in Brussels on Thursday. Two men, one armed with what appeared to be a pistol, stole the Belgian surrealist's 1948 painting Olympia.

View of the Rene Magritte Museum in Brussels on Thursday. Two men, one armed with what appeared to be a pistol, stole the Belgian surrealist's 1948 painting Olympia. (Francois Lenoir/Reuters)

Armed thieves have snatched a 1948 nude by surrealist master René Magritte in a brazen daylight robbery in Belgium.

Police revealed that robbers stole the oil painting Olympia, which depicts the artist's wife, Georgette, from a small Brussels museum on Thursday morning.

The portrait is valued at approximately $1.1 million.

According to curator André Garitte, the two suspects — one speaking English, another speaking French — entered the museum shortly after it opened on Thursday.

The duo forced staff to lie down, stole the work and fled, Garitte told Agence France-Presse.

There were reports of visitors in the museum at the time but no injuries were reported.

The small museum — separate from the city's newly opened Magritte museum — was originally Magritte's former house and entry is by appointment only.

With files from The Associated Press

LICENSE | EMAIL | PRINT | Text Size: S M L XL | REPORT TYPO | SEND YOUR FEEDBACK |

World Headlines

Death toll up to 46 in Philippine killings: The death toll from a mass execution in the Philippines rose to 46 on Tuesday as 22 more bodies were found buried in the southern part of the country.
No prisoner swap deal yet: Netanyahu: Israeli Prime Minister Bejamin Netanyahu on Tuesday tried to downplay suggestions that Israel is about to make a prisoner-swap deal for a long-held soldier.
Texas Rangers probe police shooting of N.B. man: Police in west Texas shot dead a Fredericton man who was in a wheelchair outside a motel last Friday.
China executes 2 for tainted milk powder scandal: China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick.
Doomed Chinese mine overcrowded: official: The coal mine in northern China where 104 people were killed in a gas explosion on Saturday had too many workers underground, a government official said.

World Features

People who read this also read …

Advertisment

Top CBCNews.ca Headlines

Headlines

Red Cross told late about prisoner transfers: Canadian officials delayed telling the Red Cross they had transferred prisoners to Afghan authorities, CBC News has learned, a situation that may have put detainees at greater risk of abuse.
Death toll up to 46 in Philippine killings: The death toll from a mass execution in the Philippines rose to 46 on Tuesday as 22 more bodies were found buried in the southern part of the country.
China executes 2 for tainted milk powder scandal: China executed two people Tuesday for their roles in a tainted milk powder scandal in which at least six children died and more than 300,000 became sick.
Baby cribs recalled after 4 deaths: U.S. government safety regulators are recalling more than 2.1 million drop-side cribs made by B.C.-based Stork Craft Manufacturing, the biggest crib recall in U.S. history.
Mother lost grip in child's airport fall: police: A 15-month-old Winnipeg-born boy died Sunday night after wriggling out of his mother's arms and falling about 15 metres at Toronto's Pearson International Airport.