Guards dozed as thief stole Paris paintings

An extraordinary series of blunders allowed a lone burglar to escape with masterpieces worth hundreds of millions of pounds from a Paris art gallery, it was revealed today.

They include "dozing" security guards, CCTV cameras pointing only at the roof and a management decision to switch off the alarm system because it kept going wrong.

With sirens and sensors out of action, the intruder slipped into the Museum of Modern Art after simply removing a window.

The "burly" thief escaped with five paintings by Picasso, Matisse, Braque, Modigliani and Leger, worth up to £430 million. They may not have been insured.

Three guards were said to have been "dozing" while they were supposed to be watching the cameras. Guards also said the alarm had been malfunctioning before it was switched off on March 30.

"It was going off all the time – causing unnecessary alerts," said one. "That's the reason management chose to switch it off."

The crime was not discovered until 7am by a guard arriving for work, at least three hours after the thief had left.

"I'm hugely upset by this," said mayor Bertrand Delanoe, who confirmed £15 million was spent upgrading security during a two-year refit which ended in 2006.