Degas painting stolen in France
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Your support makes all the difference.A small pastel painting of choir singers by the French impressionist master Edgar Degas has been stolen from an exhibition in Marseilles.
The theft, which further darkened a black year for European museums, was noticed when staff opened the Musée Cantini in the centre of Marseilles yesterday morning. The pastel, part of a Degas exhibition due to end in two days' time, had been removed from its frame. The Marseilles public prosecutor, Jacques Dallest, said: "There was no sign of a break-in... It was a small painting, easily hidden. There are three possible lines of inquiry. It could have been taken by a visitor, an intruder or by someone working for the museum."
The painting, Les Choristes, was said by its owner, the French museums service, to be worth around € 800,000. The Marseilles city councillor in charge of exhibitions said the theft was a "catastrophe" for a museum which has been attempting to raise its cultural profile.
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