Three armed robbers stole two Pablo Picasso prints from an art museum in downtown Sao
Paulo on Thursday, which was the city’s second high-profile art theft in less than a year. The bandits also took two oil paintings by well-know Brazilian artists Emiliano Di Cavalcanti and Lasar Segall, said Carla Regina, a spokeswoman for the Pinacoteca do Estado museum.
The Picasso prints stolen were "The Painter and the Model" from 1963 and "Minotaur, Drinker and Women" from 1933, according to a statement from the Sao Paulo Secretary of State for Culture, which oversees the museum. The prints and paintings have a combined value of $612,000, the statement and a museum official said.
About noon, three armed men paid the $2.45 entrance fee and immediately went to the second-floor gallery where the works were being exhibited, bypassing more valuable pieces, authorities said. "This indicates to us that they probably received an order" to take those specific works, Youssef Abou Chain, head of Sao Paulo's organized crime unit, told reporters at a news conference. The assailants overpowered three unarmed museum guards and grabbed the works, officials said. The robbery took about 10 minutes and the museum was nearly empty at the time. The assailants took the pieces — frames and all — out of the museum in two bags. The institution has no metal detectors.
In December, Picasso's "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" by Candido Portinari, an influential Brazilian artist, were stolen from the Sao Paulo Museum of Art by three men who used a crowbar（铁撬棍）and car jack to force open one of the museum's steel doors. The framed paintings were found Jan. 8, covered in plastic and leaning against a wall in a house on the outskirts of Sao Paulo, South America's largest city. One of the suspects in that robbery — a former TV chef — turned himself over to police in January, who already had two suspects in custody（监禁）.
小题1:What did the armed men steal on Thursday?
A．Two prints by Pablo Picasso
B．Two oil painting by Brazilian artists
C．Two prints by Pablo Picasso and two oil paintings by two Brazilian artists.
D．Two prints by two Brazilian artists and two oil paintings by Picasso Pablo.小题2:Why didn't the thieves take other more valuable works?
A．Because they didn't know that the other pieces were worth more.
B．Probably because they had received an order for the prints that they took.
C．Because they didn't have enough time.
D．Because they were in such a hurry that they couldn’t get them all.小题3:How many people were in the museum during the robbery?
A．A lot. The museum was crowded.
B．Not too many. It was almost empty.
C．There were a lot of people outside the museum.
D．Only three of them.小题4:According to the passage, which of the followings is TRUE?
A．In December, "Portrait of Suzanne Bloch" and "O Lavrador de Cafe" painted by Candido
Portinari were stolen.
B．There are steel doors and no detectors in Sao Paulo Museum of Art.
C．Three robbers defeated three armed museum guards and took away the works on Thursday.
D．Three suspects in the first high-profile art theft in less than a year were arrested.
