'Spiderman' burglar on trial over USD 100m Paris art haul

A burglar dubbed "Spiderman", notorious for daring acrobatic heists, went on trial today for a USD 100-million art heist in 2010 that saw works by Picasso and Matisse stolen from a Paris gallery.
Vjeran Tomic, a balding 49-year-old who is a skilled rock climber, arrived in a blue overcoat and sweatshirt for his trial in Paris where he faces up to 20 years in jail if convicted of the robbery.
He admitted to carrying out the heist after being arrested in May 2011 and compared himself to a famed thief from French literature as he spoke to reporters today.
"What role did I have? Arsene Lupin," he told reporters with a smile, referring to the sly but charming character who ransacked rich Parisians' homes in stories first published at the start of the 20th century.

Tomic and two alleged accomplices have been charged over the May 2010 robbery at the Modern Art Museum of five paintings by Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Ferdinand Leger and Amedeo Modigliani. All the artworks are still missing.
Tomic is suspected of cutting through a padlocked gate and breaking a window to get into the gallery, one of the most-visited museums in Paris on the banks of the Seine.

The museum's alarms had been awaiting repair for several weeks and Tomic is alleged to have somehow knocked out a security camera.
Three guards were on duty that night, but the paintings were only found to be missing from their frames just as the museum prepared to open to the public the next day.

When police arrested the Serb in May 2011, Tomic told them he had initially broken into the museum for Leger's "Still Life with Candlestick" from 1922, not thinking he would also be able to steal another four.
Besides the Leger canvas, the other works stolen were Picasso's cubist "Dove with Green Peas" from 1912 -- alone worth an estimated 25 million euros ( USD 26.8 million) -- French contemporary Matisse's "Pastoral" from 1905, Braque's "Olive Tree near Estaque" from 1906, and Modigliani's "Woman with a Fan" from 1919.
All but the Modigliani were hung in the same room in the museum, located in the well-heeled 16th district of Paris, which is run by the city and is home to more than 8,000 works of 20th-century art.