Romanians confessed to the theft of paintings from the Museum of Rotterdam
ARTinvestment.RU   23 октября 2013

Alleged gang leader Radu Dogaru told the court that considered counterfeit paintings - too bad they were guarded

at a court hearing on Tuesday, October 22 , three Romanian nationals admitted to the robbery Museum Kunsthal in Rotterdam in October 2012 . From the museum , which hosted a temporary exhibition of works from the collection of Triton Foundation, were stolen works by Henri Matisse , Paul Gauguin , Claude Monet , Pablo Picasso, Lusiena Freud and Meyer de Haan. Romanians Dogaru Radu (Radu Dogaru), Alexander The bit (Alexandru Bitu) and Eugene Dari (Eugen Dari) took just three minutes for it to make a painting from a museum .

According to the lawyer of the accused Catalin Duncan helped the robbers enter the building Kunsthal a co-conspirator , who works at the museum . His name was not mentioned. Moreover , the lawyer said that the paintings , worth about 100 million euros so poorly guarded that it was easy to thieves to steal them . If a case of negligence by museum staff , the Dogaru Danko and intend to file them in court for careless storage of the collection. According to another version , the pictures were fakes at all , and the whole exhibition was arranged in order to cheat the insurance company. And the insurer Aon Plc (AON), among other things , paid the Triton Foundation for the paintings stolen 17 million euros - the lawyer Catalin Danko .

Kunsthal museum representatives refused to comment on the statements of the accused lawyer . Kitoyu Judge Adrian (Adrian Chitoiu) said that the voluntary recognition can reduce the sentence Dogaru and his accomplices .

As for the location of stolen paintings Dogaru refused to acknowledge that they have been burned by his mother . Earlier Olga Dogaru said she burned the picture in the furnace of his house . Employees of the National History Museum of Romania , has reviewed the ashes of this oven : it was found particles of colorful pigments , canvas and nails . A little later, the Romanian National Institute for Research in Physics and Chemistry Gheorghe Niculescu (Gheorghe Niculescu) reported that , in their opinion , were just been burned three of the seven paintings .

Olga Dogaru in July has denied that she had done earlier statement that she had burned the picture. Her son says that the particles of paint and nails could be in the oven after the burning of the fence or the icons of the XIX century , which were kept in their home. According to the Romanian news agency Mediafax, Radu Dogaru also said that five paintings, he gave his old friend , Wladimir Vladimirenko . Dogaru said that he knows the address Vladimirenko in London , but now the Ukrainian is in Amsterdam . Lawyer Catalin Danko said that Vladimir Vladimirenko is a professional boxer .

Prepared by Mary Onuchina , AI

Sources : yahoo.com , bloomberg.com , romanianjournalist.wordpress.com , artinvestment.ru