Art thieves in court

Both the Monet and Sisley paintings had previously been stolen from the Musée des Beaux-Arts on Avenue des Baumettes in 1998

No alarms, no guards, no cameras. Within minutes of entering the Musée des Beaux-Arts, its walls were stripped bare of the precious artworks. In a heist that made headlines throughout the world, a gang of thieves stole two oil paintings on wood by Jan Brueghel - Allegory of Water and Allegory of Earth, both owned by the city of Nice, and two loans from the Musée d' Orsay - Cliffs Near Dieppe by Claude Monet and Alfred Sisley's The Land of Poplars at Moret.

According to eyewitnesses, the five masked men entered the museum at around 1pm on Sunday 5th August 2007 and threatened staff, forcing them to lie on the floor. They grabbed 20 million euros worth of art from the walls and escaped with their loot. The whole affair lasted no longer than five minutes.

Two of the men, Pierre-Noel Dumarais, aged 64, and 59-year-old Patrick Chelelekian, are accused of organising the heist, along with alleged accomplices Patrice Lhomme, 46, Gregory Moullec, 41, and Lionel Ritter, 39. The five have pleaded guilty to carrying out the robbery but have denied accusations from museum staff that they were armed.

The paintings were stolen on the orders of Bernard Jean Ternus, a French citizen originally from Bandol in the Var, who has lived in Miami since 2007. Ternus told the thieves he had buyers lined up to pay three million euros for the paintings which, because of their fame, would have been difficult to unload on the black market.

In June 2008, after months of negotiations, Ternus arranged for the criminal team to meet a buyer in Marseille port. What the thieves were unaware of, however, is that Ternus had been dealing with undercover FBI and French police agents. The five were arrested and Ternus was detained in Florida.

Among the FBI team was the renowned art investigator Robert Wittman, who wrote an account of the affair in his book Inestimable ('Priceless'), published in 2011.

Ternus is serving five years and three months behind bars after being convicted in the U.S. in 2008.

For the five thieves in Aix, a verdict is expected on Friday 2nd December.

Louise Kirby