PARIS (AP) -- French officials say a single masked intruder slipped into the Paris Museum of Modern Art early today and made off with five paintings that may be worth hundreds of millions of dollars.
Major works by Picasso and Matisse are among the paintings stolen.
Officials say the thief got in by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a window.
An official at Paris City Hall says the museum's security system was disabled, and the thief was caught on a video surveillance camera. He says three guards who were on duty overnight "saw nothing."
That official lists the value of the paintings at about 100 million dollars.
The Paris prosecutor's office initially estimated their value at more than $600 million.
But the director of a neighboring modern art museum says the paintings are "un-sellable," because no collector would be willing to buy them and risk arrest. He says the thieves are "imbeciles" and should just return them.
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