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A multi-million dollar painting by Pablo Picasso was damaged during a struggle between a security guard and a daring art thief at a Rio de Janeiro museum last week, local media reported Monday.
The heist of rare art works worth up to 50 million dollars from Rio's Chacara do Ceu museum on Friday, as thousands of Carnival revellers filled the city's streets, has made international headlines.
Four armed men got away in the raid with valuable works including Picasso's "The Dance" and a book by him titled "Toros", Claude Monet's "Marine", Henri Matisse's "Garden of Luxembourg" and Salvador Dali's "Two Balconies."
However, it emerged Monday that Picasso's "The Dance" was damaged, and possibly punctured, during the heist.
A museum guard, named as Roberto Rodrigues Machado, has told police the painting was punctured as he struggled to recover it from one of the thieves, according to the newspaper O Estado.
Police are trying to track down the armed gang and missing art works. Computer-generated images of two members of the gang have been issued as the hunt to recover the works continues.
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AFP 271616 GMT 02 06
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