Interpol is hunting a sophisticated gang of art thieves which has swindled some of the world's major dealers out of millions of pounds worth of rare paintings.

In their latest sting, the gang thought to be Italian, escaped with valuable works by Old Masters including Canaletto and van der Hecke.

They invited a number of art dealers to a 17th century apartment in the same building as the Spanish consulate in Venice, Italy, last June.

All had been initially approached at the prestigious Maastricht arts fair last March by an Italian art buyer, Mr Cenni, who told them he wanted to buy two paintings as a wedding present for his daughter.

On arrival the dealers were told that Mr Cenni could not meet them because his mother was ill. Instead it fell to Mr Cenni's son to persuade each courier to leave their valuable paintings with him. The couriers all left with worthless cheques as payment.
Charles Hill, an investigator who specialises in detecting art fraud for AXA Nordstern Art, described the sting as "extremely sophisticated".

He said: "The fraud was extremely well-planned. The background work must have taken months if not years to complete.

He added: "It seems the couriers probably took their eyes off the ball. It was a basic error of judgment on their part."

The Art Loss Register in London has a database of 100,000 missing works of art. Spanish impressionist Pablo Picasso is particularly popular with thieves, with over 400 paintings missing.

However, staff at the register were last year able to recover 900 items, including a £100,000 LS. Lowry, stolen from Prudential's London headquarters.

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