Paintings worth euro500M stolen from Paris museum

The paintings were reported missing early today from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, according to Paris police.Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital's most tourist-frequented neighbourhoods.

A single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera entering the museum by a window and taking that paintings away, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
Their collective worth is estimated at euro500 million (USD 613 million), the prosecutor's office said.

The paintings were "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas) by Pablo Picasso, "Pastoral" by Henri Matisse, "Olive Tree near Estaque" by Georges Braque, "Woman with a Fan" by Amedeo Modigliani and "Still Life with Chandeliers" by Fernand Leger.

A woman who answered the phone at the museum said questions about the theft would only be answered by the office of Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe. Delanoe's office did not immediately return calls for immediately comment