France - art robbery

Degas worth 800,000 euros stolen in Marseille

Article published on the 2009-12-31 Latest update 2009-12-31 16:17 TU

Les choristes
Edgar Degas

A pastel by French impresionist Edgar Degas worth 800,000 euros has been robbed from a museum in the southern French city of Marseille. It was on loan from Paris's Musée d'Orsay.

The national museums service said the picture was a pastel work titled "The Chorus", worth 800,000 euros, correcting an estimate given by local police that it was worth some 30 million euros.

It was on loan for an exhibition featuring some 20 works by Degas and measures 32 centimetres by 27.

Officials say the artwork was missing when staff at the Cantini Museum opened up on Thursday morning at 10 am.

It had been unscrewed from the wall, prosecutor Jacques Dallest says.

"As far as I know there was no break-in," he told reporters, adding that investigators suspected an intruder, a visitor to the exhibition or an inside job. The theft seems to have taken place while the museum was closed.

City councillor Maurice Di Nocera, responsible for organising major events in Marseille, called the theft "a disaster for the museum."

The museum was closed Thursday while police pursued their investigations, including examining film from security cameras.