Stolen Art Found in Parking Lot

'Spectacular' heist nets 4 masterpieces by Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Cezanne

(NEWSER) - A gang of armed art thieves absconded with four masterpieces by Van Gogh, Degas, Monet, and Cezanne worth $160 million from a Zurich museum yesterday. The brazen daytime robbery follows a theft of two Picassos in Switzerland just two days earlier. The three masked thieves confronted a guard with guns, grabbed the paintings, and took off in a white vehicle, said authorities, who described the operation as a "spectacular" heist. More»

Showcases darker tones of earlier work

(NEWSER) - For the first time in five years, the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam has added a new piece to its collection—and it looks a little different from your standard Vincent van Gogh. This one is an 1882 watercolor whose tones are much darker than those the artist later adopted. The painting shows what van Gogh called a "lonely and melancholy" dead willow leaning over a pond near the Hague. The young artist immediately wanted to paint it: "I'm going to attack it tomorrow morning," he wrote to his brother. More»

'Poppy Flowers' was taken from museum in Egypt

(NEWSER) - Despite reports of a quick recovery , a $50 million Vincent van Gogh painting is still missing from Egypt's Mahmoud Khalil Museum. The minister of culture said police confiscated the artwork, known as Poppy Flowers or Vase With Flowers, at an airport in Cairo from an Italian couple just hours after it was stolen, but he has now backtracked and says that announcement was based on "false and incorrect" information. Faulty surveillance cameras (only 7 of 43 were working), lax security, and a busted alarm system helped enable the theft, the AP reports . More»

(NEWSER) - Brad Pitt played the role of big-time art collector today at the Art Basel fair in Switzerland. Pitt spent about $1 million on a 9-foot painting by Neo Rauch, the Wall Street Journal reports. The 1998 racetrack painting, Etappe, "depicts a swirling view of a driver behind a red, Formula One-style racecar, with workers nearby carrying candy-colored hoses," writes Kelly Crow. It's an oil-on-linen. Click on the link to see a photo of it. More»

Portrait of peasant found behind 1887 painting

(NEWSER) - European scientists today revealed a Van Gogh portrait of a peasant's head behind one of his paintings, LiveScience reports. Using a new X-ray technique, the researchers pulled out the portrait's brown and red pigments, which Van Gogh covered with Patch of Grass, 1887. The scientists, primarily from Belgium and the Netherlands, plan to uncover other hidden paintings with the new technique. More»