The Van Gogh Heist – Marseille’s Silent Art Robbery - video Dailymotion

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00:00In the early morning hours of August 5th, 2000, the quiet streets of Marseille, France,

00:06were disturbed by an audacious and almost cinematic theft from the Musée d'Armodernes, Museum of Modern Art.

00:14At exactly 4 a.m., a group of masked thieves broke into the museum through a back window.

00:20There were no alarms and no guards on duty at that hour.

00:24The gang moved swiftly and precisely, clearly familiar with the layout of the building.

00:30In less than 10 minutes, they stole four priceless paintings by legendary artists.

00:36The stolen artworks included waterlilies by Claude Monet, Tahitian landscape by Paul Gauguin,

00:43The Woman with a Fan by Pierre Bonnard, and View of the Sea at St. Mary's by Vincent van Gogh.

00:49The estimated value of the stolen artworks was over £20 million, about $30 million at the time,

00:57but their cultural significance was far greater.

01:00When staff arrived that morning, they were stunned to find four empty spaces on the gallery walls.

01:07The theft appeared so clean and professional that authorities suspected it was done on commission.

01:13Despite launching a national investigation, with help from Interpol and international art crime experts,

01:19French police found no fingerprints, no security footage, and no suspects.

01:25There were no ransom demands, no blackmail attempts, just silence.

01:30The mystery deepened as years passed with no trace of the paintings.

01:36Art theft experts speculated that the works may have been smuggled out of France within hours of the theft.

01:41Some believed they were hidden in a private collection, never to be seen again.

01:47Then, in a shocking twist, in 2003, French police received a tip.

01:52During a sting operation in Marseille, three of the four stolen paintings were recovered in excellent condition.

01:59The van Gogh, however, was still missing, and none of the thieves were apprehended.

02:04Authorities never revealed who tipped them off, or how the paintings resurfaced.

02:10The van Gogh masterpiece remains lost to this day,

02:14possibly in the hands of a secretive buyer or hidden away in a vault somewhere in Europe.

02:19The case remains officially open, and no one was ever charged for the heist.

02:24The professionalism of the theft, the precision and timing, and the silence that followed suggest one thing.

02:31This was an inside-informed, highly planned art crime, and the perfect robbery, at least for some.