Main suspect in Rotterdam art heist nabbed in England

The main suspect of the sensational art heist in Rotterdam has been arrested in the United Kingdom. Adrian Procop who is suspected to have orchestrated the robbery together with Radu Dogaru, has been on the run since November last year. Romanian news media reported on Friday that police in Bucharest were notified of his arrest on Thursday by Interpol in Manchester.

The master pieces by Paul Gauguin, Claude Monet, Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso disappeared on October 16th from Kunsthal, an art gallery in the Museum Park of Rotterdam. Procop was held shortly after in the city, but released after police could not prove he was one of the thieves.

Dogaru, who apparently is the one who removed the seven paintings from the gallery, was arrested in Romania and sentenced to six years and eight months in prison last week.; Eugen Darie, who transported the paintings from the Netherlands to Romania also got six years and eight months, while three other suspects –including Dogaru’s mother and business man Petre Condrat- await sentencing. Dogaru and Darie have appealed their verdicts, but so has the Prosecutor’s Office in Romania.

The paintings have not been recovered yet. There had been fears that Dogaru’s mother Olga had burned some of the priceless pieces, but that has not been proven yet.