>>>Lone thief steals $613 million-worth of art<<<

PARIS - Five paintings including masterpieces by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse worth $613 million have been stolen from a Paris museum, police said Thursday.

A police official said the paintings were reported missing early Thursday at the Paris Museum of Modern Art. A lone thief was responsible, police and prosecutors said.

The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the preliminary investigation was still under way.
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The official said the paintings were by Picasso, Matisse, George Braque, Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Leger.

Police and investigators cordoned off the museum, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower.

A woman who answered the phone at the museum said questions about the theft would only be answered by the office of Paris mayor Bertrand Delanoe.

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