Six paintings stolen in armed daylight raid on South African art museum

Three men posing as an art teacher and two students stole paintings worth about R17.5m (£1.2m) by some of South Africa's most celebrated artists off the walls of the Pretoria Art Museum in a brazen daytime robbery.

The three paid an entrance fee of R10 each on Sunday and asked museum staff to direct them to the six works of art, which happened to be among the most valuable paintings on display.

Workers at the museum said it seemed as if the raiders had a shopping list.

They then produced weapons, tied up a museum worker and took the art works out of the building, a city spokesman said. reuters