Art News

Paris Heightens Museum Vigilance After Big Heist at Museum of Modern Art

PARIS (AP).- Paris City Hall, embarrassed by a major art heist at a museum with a broken alarm, urged security guards Friday to be more vigilant — and pleaded with the perpetrators not to damage the Picasso, Matisse and Modigliani spirited away from the city’s Museum of Modern Art. Despite mounting criticism of museum security following Thursday’s $123 million theft and other recent heists, the deputy mayor for culture said there were no plans to add security personnel or make sharp changes to how Paris protects its cultural treasures. “My only worry today, to be completely honest, is the safety of these paintings,” Christophe Girard told AP Television News. “These people who have taken them, I beg them not to do anything to these paintings …. These are masterpieces that belong to millions of people.” “Don’t touch them. Give them back,” he pleaded. The Museum of Modern