Two Picasso paintings stolen in Paris

SCENE OF CRIME: The home of Diana Widmaier Picasso, from where paintings have been stolen.

Paris: Two Picasso paintings worth some Euro 50 million ($66 million) were stolen this week from the Paris home of a granddaughter of the Spanish painter, police said on Wednesday.

The paintings were stolen in the night of Monday to Tuesday by burglars who broke into the woman's apartment in the smart seventh arrondissement of the French capital.

"The paintings which were stolen are known throughout the world, they've been seen everywhere," Widmaier Picasso's lawyer Paul Lombard told Reuters.

The paintings, identified by police as "Maya a la poupee" (Maya with doll) a 1938 portrait of the artist's daughter, and "Portrait de femme, Jacqueline" were stolen in the night of Monday to Tuesday from her home in the French capital.

Lombard said Widmaier Picasso and a friend had been in the building, a grand house in Paris's smart seventh arrondissement, and the circumstances of the theft were still unclear, with no obvious signs of a break-in.

"No one knows the exact circumstances of the theft," he said. The investigation is being handled by the police's organised crime division.

The spokesman said there was no obvious sign of a break-in at the apartment.

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