Paintings by famous artists including Picasso, Matisse, Monet, Gauguin and Freud have disappeared from a museum in Rotterdam. Seven works of famous modern artists have been stolen. The Netherlands Police notified that the works were taken from the Kunsthal Museum early on Tuesday morning. And according the words of police, "Initial investigations show the burglar was well prepared." As part of its 20th anniversary celebrations the museum is showing famous works from the Triton Foundation. The paintings on the exhibition that were stolen include Monet's Waterloo Bridge, Picasso's Tete d'Arlequin, Matisse's La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune and Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed. Monet's Charing Cross Bridge, Gaugin's Femme Devant une Fenetre Ouverte, dite La Fiancee and Meyer de Hann's Autoportrait are among stolen paintings too. The works belong to the private collection, which was shown to the public for the first time. Patricia Wessels, the museum spokeswoman, told during the interview with the AFP news agency that police were alerted during the night closer to morning time as the alarm went off but the thief, or thieves, had already left the building of the museum by the time when police arrived. Dutch police notifies that the robbery took place at around 03:00 a.m. "The alarm system in the Kunsthal is supposed to be state of the art. We've got no reason to believe that it's not but somehow the people responsible for this found a way in and a way out," said Roland Ekkers from Rotterdam Police. This art theft is already considered to be the biggest robbery in the Netherlands since 1991 when 20 paintings were stolen from Amsterdam's Van Gogh museum. The Worth of the works is counted in millions. According the words of Chris Marinello, who is the director of The Art Loss Register, which tracks different stolen artworks, it was pretty clear that some of the most valuable art works in the exhibited collection were targeted. And Marinello notified that the stolen items could be worth "hundreds of millions of euros", if to sell them legally at auction. But as Chris Marinello insured, it is impossible now, as The Art Loss Register has already done its job, and the paintings are registered internationally as stolen. According the police statements and initial investigations, the robbery was so well prepared. But Now Police is doing everything possible to find at least any clues and tracks of the thefts. They are reviewing videotape footage and calling on any witnesses to come forward. The museum was closed on Tuesday. The Triton Foundation is a collection of avant-garde art. More than 150 famed artists, including Paul Cezanne, Salvador Dali, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol were shown on the Kunsthal exhibition. Some of the works from the collection have been on public display before. But it was the first time when the entire collection had been displayed all together. Let’s remind that The Kunsthal museum itself, which in Dutch means "art gallery", is a display space which doesn’t have its own permanent collection.
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