Romania Ashamed By Art Heist

Romanians are ashamed of the Kunsthal Art Heist. “Our country is disgraced in the world by culture barbarians.” And: “This will have implications for the accession of Romania to the Schengen countries.” With this Romanian media headlines characterize the effects of the robbery of seven masterpieces from museum the Kunsthal in Rotterdam in October of last year.

On Tuesday the perpetrators of the 'art heist of the century' will show up for the first time in court in the Romanian capital Bucharest. One of the six suspects is still on the run.

The five suspects will be charged for burglary, theft and with complicity thereto. The mother of one of the suspects is being held responsible for hiding the artwork.

Earlier the mother confessed to have burned the seven paintings in her home in eastern Romania, but later she withdrew that confession again.

When the court conclusively thinks it is proven that the seven paintings were burned by her, she can expect a prison sentence of around 20 years. The lawyers of the defendants have every confidence that the art work will appear, so let they know last week.

If the art work really shows up intact, then that’s the only thing that perhaps may change the feeling of the Romanians that their country is disgraced by the suspects.

But the general idea is that the three burglars and robbers had no idea what they had stolen. They wanted to sell the stolen paintings for 50,000 euro while they were worth 10 million. Since they couldn’t sell it they just burned the ‘proof’.