On February 10, 2008, armed robbers stole four paintings from the Foundation E. G. Buehrle Collection in Zurich: Paul Cezanne's Boy in the Red Vest, Edgar Degas's Count Lepic and His Daughters, Claude Monet's Poppies near Vetheuil and Vincent van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches. The works were valued at roughly CHF 180 million, making the robbery one of the largest art thefts by value in Europe. Two paintings, the Monet and Van Gogh, were found days later in a parked car; the Cezanne and Degas were recovered in Serbia in 2012, with the Degas reportedly damaged. The case exposed the vulnerability of private-museum collections holding internationally famous Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.
The theft became a reference point for security risks around small high-value collections.
