Story highlights
- Experts analyze ashes found in a stove to see if they are the remains of stolen artwork
- Works by Matisse, Picasso and Monet were among paintings taken from a Dutch museum
- Six people have been charged in Romania in connection with the theft last year
- There are traces of pigments in the ashes from the stove of one of those charged, official says
Ashes found in the stove of a Romanian home have become the focus of investigations into the theft of seven valuable paintings by artists including Picasso, Matisse and Monet -- amid fears they may have gone up in smoke.
Experts from Romania's National History Museum have been analyzing the ashes for traces of paint and other chemicals that would confirm whether the works stolen last year from a Dutch museum have been destroyed.
The ashes come from the stove of one of the people indicted in the case, Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu, general director of Romania's National History Museum said Thursday.
"Works of art and paintings have been burned and there are traces of typical red, yellow and green pigments," he told CNN affiliate ProTV.
Photos: Notorious art heists
Photos: Notorious art heists
In 1911, Leonardo Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" was stolen from the Louvre by an Italian who had been a handyman for the museum. The now-iconic painting was recovered two years later.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
A statue called "Young Girl With Serpent" by Auguste Rodin was stolen from a home in Beverly Hills, California, in 1991. It was returned after someone offered it on consignment to Christie's auction house. Rodin, a French sculptor considered by some aficionados to have been the father of modern sculpture, lived from 1840 until 1917. His most famous work, "The Thinker," shows a seated man with his chin on his hand.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
Picasso's "La Coiffeuse" ("The Hairdresser") was discovered missing in 2001 and was recovered when it was shipped from Belgium to the United States in December 2014. The shipper had listed the item as a $37 piece of art being sent to the United States as a Christmas present.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
Italy's Culture Ministry unveils two paintings by the French artists Paul Gauguin and Pierre Bonnard on April 2, 2014. The paintings were stolen from a family house in London in 1970, abandoned on a train and then later sold at a lost-property auction, where a factory worker paid 45,000 Italian lira for them -- roughly equivalent to 22 euros ($30) at the time.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
A 19th-century Renoir painting was stolen from a US museum in 1951 and then bought at a flea market in 2010. A judge later ruled that it to be returned to the museum. The 5½-by-9-inch painting, titled "Landscape on the Banks of the Seine," was bought for $7 at a flea market by a Virginia woman.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
Seven famous paintings were stolen from the Kunsthal Museum in Rotterdam, Netherlands, in 2012, including two Claude Monet works, "Charing Cross Bridge, London" and "Waterloo Bridge." The other paintings, in oil and watercolor, were Picasso's "Harlequin Head," Henri Matisse's "Reading Girl in White and Yellow," Lucian Freud's "Woman with Eyes Closed," Paul Gauguin's "Femme devant une fenêtre ouverte, dite la Fiancee" and Meyer de Haan's "Autoportrait."
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Photos: Notorious art heists
A Salvador Dali painting stolen from a Manhattan art gallery by a man posing as a potential customer in 2012. It was later intercepted by customs police after it was sent back to the United States from Greece.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
In 1473, Hans Memling's "The Last Judgment" was stolen by pirates and became the first documented art theft.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
Adam Worth, the inspiration for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's diabolical character Moriarty, stole "Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire," painted by Thomas Gainsborough in 1876.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
The Nazis plundered countless precious artworks during World War II, including "Adele Bloch-Bauer I," by Austrian artist Gustav Klimt, which was confiscated from the owner as he fled Austria.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
Many works of art that were taken by the Nazis were never recovered. Others were returned after years of legal battles. "Christ Carrying the Cross," by Italian artist Girolamo de' Romani, was returned to its owner's family in 2012.
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Photos: Notorious art heists
A version of Edvard Munch's "The Scream" was one of two paintings by the artist to be stolen from the Munch Museum in Oslo, Norway, in 2004.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – On March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers entered the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum and stole 13 priceless works of art. Twelve of the 13 pieces stolen are included in this gallery. Here you see one of five "Gouache" drawings by Edgar Degas.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – Upon entering, the intruders handcuffed the security guards, bound them with duct tape and left them in the basement, authorities said at the time. Pictured here is another of Degas' "Gouache" drawings.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – In less than 90 minutes, the bandits went through the museum's Dutch Room on the second floor and stole three Rembrandts, including the Dutch artist's only seascape, "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," along with Vermeer's "The Concert," five Degas drawings and other items, according to the museum's website. Pictured here: a third of Degas' "Gouache" drawings.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – Pictured here: a fourth of Degas' "Gouache" drawings.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – The fifth of Degas' "Gouache" drawings.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – "Landscape with an Obelisk" by Govaert Flinck
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – Finial in the form of an eagle, gilt metal (bronze), French
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – "A Lady and Gentleman in Black" by Rembrandt
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – "Self-Portrait" by Rembrandt
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – "The Storm on the Sea of Galilee," the only seasscape painted by Rembrandt.
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – "The Concert" by Vermeer
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Photos: The search for stolen masterpieces
The search for stolen masterpieces – Chinese bronze beaker or Ku, A Chinese, Shang Dynasty, 1200-1100 B.C.ancient bronze beaker.
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Thief gets away with $200,000 Picasso 00:46
But it's not yet confirmed whether these traces are all that remains of the stolen artwork.
Six people have been charged by the Romanian public prosecutor's office in connection with the theft from the Kunsthal museum in the Dutch city of Rotterdam on the night of October 15 last year.
Three men, Radu Dogaru, Darie Eugen and Adrian Procop, are charged with robbery counts.
A woman, Olga Dogaru, is accused of complicity in the crime by transporting and hiding the stolen artwork, the prosecutor's office said.
Two other defendants are accused of helping the alleged thieves by trying to value or sell the paintings.
The paintings, in oil and watercolor, include Pablo Picasso's "Harlequin Head," Henri Matisse's "Reading Girl in White and Yellow," Claude Monet's Waterloo Bridge" and "Charing Cross Bridge," and "Woman with Eyes Closed" by Lucian Freud. Works by Gauguin and Meyer de Haan were also taken.
The loss resulting from the theft is estimated at €18 million, the prosecutor's office said.
