Cat burglar arrested with 500,000 euros-worth of artworks

Artworks worth 500,000 euros have been seized from a suspected cat burglar just outside Paris. Drawings by impressionist Camille Pissaro and modernist Fernand Léger were among the haul.

Musée Fernand Léger

Police in Seine-Saint-Denis found the paintings and drawings at the home of a 43-year-old man whom they had been tracking for several months.

They also found a folding ladder, mountain-climbers’ ropes and boots, suction pads and a pick.

The haul led them to conclude that the man was responsible for a series of art thefts in Paris’s posh 16th arrondissement in 2009 where the burglar gained access by climbing the sides of buildings.

The investigation began with an inquiry into the sale of stolen artworks by a Paris antiques dealer who was arrested on 11 May in possession of a number of stolen objects, including a painting by Johan Jongkind, a Dutch artist who lived and worked in France, and a small Chinese clock.