ART

Matisse Works Stolen: A cat burglar stole eight works by French master Henri Matisse worth $12.5 million from the artist’s former apartment in Nice, police said Monday. The works include the celebrated oil paintings “View Over the Port of Collioure,” “Woman in Brittany” and “Devilacqua.” Police said the plush apartment located in the hills overlooking the Mediterranean was Matisse’s home from 1938 until his death in 1954, but it had not been lived in regularly for more than 20 years. According to police sources, the apartment and paintings were bequeathed jointly to Matisse’s heirs, who had been unable to agree on how the legacy should be divided. The painter’s daughter-in-law, Maria Matisse, discovered the theft. The thief climbed up the front of the building, broke a window to get into the third-floor apartment and cut five oils, two pencil drawings and an etching from their frames, police said. The collection of works kept at the apartment are well known and police said it would be difficult for the thieves to sell them on the legitimate art market.