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Side view of Pretoria Art Museum. Photo by Laurens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Armed robbers raid South African art museum

Catherine Saunders-Watson
Catherine Saunders-Watson
Side view of Pretoria Art Museum. Photo by Laurens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Side view of Pretoria Art Museum. Photo by Laurens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

JOHANNESBURG (AFP) – Three armed robbers stormed into the Pretoria Art Museum Sunday and made away with around 15 million rands ($1.8 million) worth of artwork, South African media reported.

“They pulled out a list and said they were looking for so and so painting which is our old masterpieces,” Daywood Khans, a museum employee who was held at gunpoint, told radio 702.

The trio shopped through the museum, placing the stolen artwork in a trolley, and fled the scene leaving one painting behind because it did not fit in their getaway car.

The museum did not specify which works were stolen.

“At this stage a case of armed robbery has been opened with the Pretoria police,” Katlego Mogale, a police spokesman in the South African administrative capital, said.

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ADDITIONAL IMAGE OF NOTE

Side view of Pretoria Art Museum. Photo by Laurens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.
Side view of Pretoria Art Museum. Photo by Laurens, licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.