Thieves steal art masterworks in Zurich

ZURICH (Reuters) - Masked robbers brandishing handgunsstole four paintings by 19th Century masters worth $164 million(84 million pounds) from a Zurich museum in Switzerland'sbiggest art theft, police said on Monday.

Oil paintings by Cezanne, Degas, van Gogh and Monet werestolen in broad daylight on Sunday from the private BuehrleCollection in the second dramatic art theft in the area withindays.

The robbery in Switzerland's financial capital followed thetheft of two Picasso paintings -- Tete de Cheval, from 1962,and Verre et Pichet, from 1944 -- from a nearby cultural centrelast week.

Police told Reuters they had no concrete leads on thePicasso theft and that the investigation was ongoing. Theydeclined to say whether they thought the two thefts wereconnected.

In Sunday's robbery, three men in dark clothing and masks,one of whom spoke German with a Slavic accent, forced their wayinto the museum and made off with the paintings in a white car,police said.

Police said a reward of 100,000 Swiss francs was on offerfor information leading to their arrest.

The four paintings stolen were Cezanne's The Boy in the RedVest from 1890, Degas' Viscount Lepic and His Daughters from1871, Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil from 1880 and Van Gogh'sBlossoming Chestnut Branches from 1890, police said.

Police raised the value of the paintings to 180 millionSwiss francs (84 million pounds) after initially saying thepaintings were valued at 100 million francs.

The Sunday theft occurred at the impressionist collectionamassed by the late Swiss industrialist Emil Buehrle -- one ofthe most controversial business figures of his time for sellinganti-aircraft guns to Nazi Germany during World War Two.

The Buehrle Collection, positioned near Zurich's wealthyGold Coast chain of lakeside suburbs, boasts one of the mostimportant assemblies of French impressionism andpost-impressionism, according to its Web site (www.buehrle.ch).

A spokesman for the collection, housed in a gated villa onthe outskirts of Switzerland's largest city, was notimmediately available for comment.

Buehrle collected the paintings between 1951 and his deathin 1956, according to the Web site.

The stolen Picassos, which are valued in media reports ataround $4.5 million, were on loan from the Sprengel Museum inHannover.

(Reporting by Katie Reid and Andrew Hurst; Writing byThomas Atkins; Editing by Charles Dick)