Art thieves sentenced

Ústí nad Labem’s regional court sentenced a gang of six on Monday for the theft of valuable paintings by leading 20th century avant garde painter Emil Filla. The four oil paintings, dating back to the 1940s and worth an estimated 66 million crowns, were stolen around mid-November. One of them, estimated at four million, was sold to a buyer for a quarter of a million crowns. According to the police, the theft was not commissioned. The highest sentence received in the case was 12 years for Vojtěch Hlouška, who also committed other thefts.