A court in Poznan, western Poland, has began the trial of a 41-year-old man who has pleaded guilty of stealing a rare picture by Claude Monet from Poznań’s National Museum in September 2000.

Robert Z. (surname withheld in accordance with Poland’s privacy law) told the court that he had thought about stealing the painting, The Beach at Pourville, for years because he had “fallen in love with it”.

He added that he had no words to excuse what he had done. “I’m terribly ashamed. This shouldn’t have happened,” he said and asked the court to “give him a chance”.

Before the burglary, the man had received permission from the Poznan Museum to paint a copy of another painting exhibited in the same room as the Monet. Once inside the museum he cut picture out of its frame and replaced it with a copy he had commissioned and smuggled into the museum hidden in his artist’s equipment.

He kept the painting in his parents’ wardrobe for nine years.

He was finally arrested this January. The art lover faces up to 10 years in jail. The picture he stole, valued at some seven million USD, is now undergoing conservation and should be back on show at the Museum in Poznań in October. (ek/pg)

source: IAR