(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-02-12 14:26

A reward of US$90,000 (euro61,890) was offered for information leading to the recovery of the paintings -- Claude Monet's "Poppy field at Vetheuil," Edgar Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter," Vincent van Gogh's "Blooming Chestnut Branches" and Paul Cezanne's "Boy in the Red Waistcoat."

The FBI estimates the stolen art market at US$6 billion (euro 4.1 billion) annually, and Interpol has about 30,000 stolen works listed in its database. But while only a fraction of stolen art is ever found, such thefts are rare because of intense police investigations and the difficulty of selling the works.

A police handout shows the painting 'Boy in the Red Vest' by French artist Paul Cezanne (1839 - 1906). [Agencies]

"It's extremely hard, if not impossible, to sell these works," said Michaela Derra of Ketterer Kunst GmbH, a Munich, Germany-based purveyor of modern and contemporary art. "Maybe they think they can blackmail the insurance (companies) and get money for the paintings in return. But this is all speculation."

Police said the museum had not received any such demand.

Steve Thomas, head of art law at Irell & Manella LLP's Los Angeles office, said it was unlikely the robbery was commissioned by a private collector looking to stash art in a secret location.

He thought the motive most likely would be an insurance ransom, a reward or leverage for someone who could be facing prosecution for even bigger crimes.

"As values have skyrocketed, art has become more of a target, and we are seeing more and more major art thefts around the world," he said.

But funding for art museums, particularly in security, has not kept pace, Thomas said. "Even with the best of museums, with the best of security, with guards standing there, people still manage to get away with the art."

Buehrle, a German-born industrialist who provided arms to the Third Reich during World War II, amassed one of Europe's greatest private collections in the aftermath of the war.

Edgar Degas' "Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter"

At least 13 of the art works he owned at war's end were included on British specialist Douglas Cooper's "looted art list," which was used to recover pieces stolen from Jews by the Nazis.

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