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ARTLESS: Thieves outsmarted themselves by stealing a Matisse (right) from a Dutch museum, leaving its spot bare. (
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They’ve painted themselves into a corner.
Thieves brazenly stole hundreds of millions of dollars in world-famous paintings from a Dutch museum — but experts said yesterday they’ll be nearly impossible to resell.
“Once they’re stolen, they’re worthless,” Christopher Marinello, executive director at the Art Loss Register, told The Post. “No legitimate dealer, collector or auction house is going to handle them. They have no value.”
They would also be “impossible to sell it on the black market,” a New York law-enforcement source told The Post.
“Who’s going to buy it? Who’s going to buy something that’s been all over the news, everywhere? There’s no market for that.”
The crooks made off with seven invaluable works of art — including a Picasso and two Monets — without setting off the Kunsthal museum’s state-of-the-art alarm system during the 3 a.m. heist in Rotterdam yesterday.
The stolen works were: Pablo Picasso’s “Harlequin Head;” Henri Matisse’s “Reading Girl in White and Yellow;” Claude Monet’s “Waterloo Bridge, London” and “Charing Cross Bridge, London;” Paul Gauguin’s “Girl in Front of Open Window;” Meyer de Haan’s “Self-Portrait,” and Lucian Freud’s “Woman with Eyes Closed.”
They are so famous, it would be “next to impossible” to flip them, Marinello said.
But the thieves could try asking for ransom, said the law-enforcement source.
“A lot of the time, in Europe, they will ransom the paintings back,” the source said. “They first steal them, then they hold it, and then secrete it.
“If that’s the case, someone will come forward with a tip as to where it can be found in return for a finder’s fee,” the source added.
“Usually, they contact authorities either through a middleman or somebody else — the gallery, museum or other institution where the painting was stolen.”
Either way, it may be a while before anyone hears about the paintings again.
“If the police don’t get them back very quickly, it could be years before they resurface,” Marinello said.
Kunsthal museum director Emily Ansenk said news of the theft “struck like a bomb.”
“It’s every museum director’s worst nightmare,” she said.
Museum authorities would not disclose details of how the crooks avoided the museum’s security system, which Ansenk described only as “state of the art” and functional.”
Kunsthal Chairman Willem van Hassel said the security system is automated and there were no guards on site.
Detectives yesterday were interviewing potential witnesses and combing through security footage from the museum.
“Initial investigations show the burglar was well prepared,” Rotterdam-Rijnmond Police said in a statement.
Authorities would not disclose the stolen artworks’ value. But Marinello said the paintings could be worth “hundreds of millions” of dollars.
“It’s hard to say which one is most valuable,” he said. “These pieces have not been in the market for many, many years.”