Montreal Museum of Fine Arts
The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts is a museum in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. It was founded in 1860, making it Canada's oldest art institution.
The museum is partitioned into three pavilions: a 1912 Beaux Arts building designed by William Sutherland Maxwell, now named the Michal and Renata Hornstein Pavilion, the modernist Jean-Noël Desmarais Pavilion across the street, designed by Moshe Safdie, built in 1991, and the Liliane and David M. Stewart Pavilion.
Together, the buildings house approximately 30,000 pieces. The Museum is located in the historic Golden Square Mile stretch of Sherbrooke Street, once famous for the opulent mansions along street.
In February 2007, the museum announced plans to convert an adjacent church into a Canadian art pavilion. This new building will allow the museum to double its display space for Canadian artists. The new pavilion should open in 2010.
1972 robbery
On September 4, 1972, it was the site of the largest art theft in Canadian history, when armed thieves made off with jewellery, figurines and 18 paintings worth a total of $2 million at the time, including works by Delacroix, Gainsborough and a rare Rembrandt landscape. The works have never been recovered. In 2003, the Globe and Mail estimated that the Rembrandt alone would be worth $20 million. [1]