Focus on Le pigeon aux petits pois and explore the Theft.
At 3:00 a.m. on 20 May 2010, a masked burglar broke into the Paris Museum of Modern Art by removing the glass from a window. Both the motion sensor and the alarm that should have been activated by the break-in were out of order. The theft was not discovered until the next morning. Police traced the perpetrator from an insider's tip and the burglar was identified as 49-year-old Vjéran Tomic, who had an existing criminal record. He was sentenced to eight years in prison and he and his two accomplices were ordered to pay a fine of €104 million.
One of Tomic's accomplices, Yonathan Birn, who confessed to receiving the stolen goods, claimed that he threw the stolen artworks in the trash, however, the police doubt this assertion. In total, five artworks were stolen, including Le pigeon aux petit pois and works by Henri Matisse, Georges Braque, Fernand Léger and Amedeo Modigliani. The stolen paintings have never been found and together are valued at $100 million. The other four stolen paintings were Still Life with Chandeliers by Fernand Léger, Olive Tree near Estaque by Georges Braque, La Pastorale by Henri Matisse and Woman with a Fan by Amedeo Modigliani.Alice Farren-Bradley, of the Art Loss Register in London, described the theft as "one of the biggest art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum."
Still Life with Chandeliers Georges Braque Amedeo Modigliani Fernand Léger Henri Matisse Paris Museum of Modern Art