René Magritte painting stolen in daytime robbery

Armed thieves stole a painting by surrealist René Magritte from a Belgian museum dedicated to Magritte’s work, perpetrated in broad daylight.

The painting, Olympia, inspired by the artist’s wife, and valued at up to €3 million ($4.8 million US), was stolen by armed thieves today in a lightning daylight raid on a museum dedicated to his life and work. The two robbers, one who spoke French and the other English, according to Times online, ordered the museum staff and visitors to lie down in the back garden. The thieves used hats and wigs to hide their identity from the surveillance cameras. The museum is located in the Brussels suburb of Jette and has no metal detectors or other screening equipment at the entrance. It appears the thieves knew what they wanted and police suggest the painting may have been stolen to order. Marthe Lemmens, a museum employee who was not present at the time of the raid, told the Times: “Apparently they held a gun to the head of my colleague and she tried to scream but they covered her mouth and they ordered all of them into the garden at the back. “The painting, Olympia, is the museum’s pièce de resistance. It is our most important and our most valuable picture.” Magritte was born in Belgium and died in 1967. His series of surrealist works featuring his trademark bowler hats, pipes, green apples and electric blue skies. Johan Berckmans, a police spokesman at the scene, told the Times: “At 10.10am someone rang the bell of the museum asking if they could visit. He was let in and when he was inside he pulled out a pistol and ordered the woman to go back to the door to let a second person come inside. “There were three museum workers inside at the time and two Japanese tourists. All five of them were ordered out the back and told to keep quiet by the man with the gun. In the museum the other person stole the painting and they both made good their escape. They seemed to know which painting they wanted to steal — they took the whole painting off the wall, including the frame. It was likely an ordered job.”