On the night of July 27, two thieves broke into an apartment on the first floor of a building in Paris' 5th arrondissement, seizing eight artworks and €3,000 worth of jewelry. The apartment owner, a 75-year-old British woman, was asleep during the robbery and only noticed the theft the following morning.
The thieves entered the apartment through a window that had been left open. Aware of the value of her collection, the owner had an alarm system installed, which she had deactivated when she was in the apartment. The authorities were notified on July 28 at 9:27 a.m.
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Among the eight missing paintings are two compositions by Pierre Soulages (b. 1919), the French abstract painter who celebrated his 100th birthday last December. Soulages defined his style as Outrenoir (which translates to 'Beyond Black') because of his compositions featuring dominant strokes of black paint. Passionate about the contrast and opposition of textures and colors, he chose abstraction because he said that he did not see the point of going “through the detour of representation." The artist's record was set last November at Tajan in Paris, where one of his paintings sold for €9.6 million ($11.2 million).
Related: Abstract Art: From Genre to Movement
An in-depth analysis was conducted to identify possible traces of the burglars on the scene, while the surveillance cameras on the street have been seized by the police. The criminals are still on the loose.
