BUCHAREST (AFP) – All three Romanians arrested last week on suspicion of involvement in the theft of seven masterpieces from a Rotterdam museum, including works by Monet and Picasso, claim they are innocent, their lawyers said Friday.

Daniela Dede told AFP that her client Mihai Alexandru Bitu, accused of acting as an intermediary in the sale of two paintings, was “absolutely not guilty.”

“He just received a call from his co-defendant who asked him to find a buyer for some objects. He didn’t know it was these paintings,” she said.

Two other men, Radu Dogaru and Eugen Darie, were also “not guilty in this affair,” their lawyer Doina Lupu said.

All three have been detained for questioning since their arrest on Jan. 22. Under Romanian law, they can be held for 29 days but their lawyers were seeking Friday to have them released early.

The spectacular grab from Rotterdam’s Kunsthal museum in the night of Oct. 15-16 last year was the biggest heist in 20 years, with the value of the works pinched estimated at between 50 million and 200 million euros ($66 million and $266 million) on the open market.

All three men had spent several months in the Netherlands prior to the theft.

According to sources close to the case, the men admitted visiting the museum, but a week before the theft.

The heist gripped the Netherlands and the art world as police apparently struggled to piece the crime together, despite putting 25 officers on the case.

Dutch police released grainy security camera footage of the theft, which took place around 3 a.m. The footage showed two apparently young males entering and leaving the museum in central Rotterdam within barely 90 seconds.

Romania’s police chief Petre Toba said Thursday that “clues had shown that several other people took part in the theft.”

The works stolen include Picasso’s Tete d’Arlequin, Monet’s Waterloo Bridge and Lucian Freud’s Woman with Eyes Closed.

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