'Spiderman' art thief jailed for Paris museum heist

A burglar nicknamed "Spiderman" has been given an eight-year prison sentence for the theft of five paintings from Paris's Museum of Modern Art.

Vjeran Tomic, a repeat offender known for his ability to climb into apartments, admitted to stealing works including pieces by Matisse and Pablo Picasso in the €104m (£89m) 2010 heist.

His two accomplices, Jean-Michel Corvez, who was accused of ordering the heist, and Yonathan Birn, who hid the paintings for a period, were jailed for seven and six years respectively.

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Tomic told police he broke into the museum hoping to steal a piece by French cubist painter Fernand Leger, but took four more paintings when the museum's alarm system failed to go off because he "liked them".

Lawyer David Olivier Kaminski said his client was a mere "cat burglar" who had "acted alone" and got carried away when he realised there were gaping holes in the museum's security system, says the Daily Telegraph.

The paper adds that Tomic merely had to break a pane of glass and a padlock to carry out his daring heist.

Presiding judge Peimane Ghaleh-Marzban spoke of the "disconcerting ease" in which Tomic evaded "defective" security to steal the masterpieces.

The crime amounted to stealing "cultural goods belonging to humankind's artistic heritage", he added.

As the five paintings have not been located, the three defendants were also ordered to pay the City of Paris €104m (£88m) in compensation.

"Some mystery remains as to whether the paintings were sold, hidden somewhere safe or, in a worst-case scenario, destroyed, as Birn claimed during the trial," reports the New York Times.

During questioning, Birn claimed he had thrown the haul in the bin in panic.

He said: "I thought I was being followed by the police, convinced I was being filmed or spied on. I told myself that I couldn't get out of the building with the paintings and committed the irreparable."

However, Corvez told the court Birn was "far too crafty" and too much of an art lover to "degrade himself by destroying the works".