Mum of art thief suspect admits she torched stolen $143m worth of art by Picasso, Monet in her oven A man examines the empty space where Henri Matisse' painting La Liseuse en Blanc et Jaune was hanging at Kunsthal museum in Rotterdam before the 2012 heist. THE mother of a Romanian art heist suspect has admitted to torching seven stolen masterpieces, including works by Picasso and Monet, the Mediafax news agency reports. The mother of suspect Radu Doragu said she incinerated the artworks, valued at over 100 million euros ($143.4 million), in her stove in a bid to "destroy any evidence." "After the arrest of my son in January 2013, I was very scared because I knew that what had happened was very serious," Mediafax reported Mr Dogaru's mother as saying, citing court documents. I placed the suitcase containing the paintings in the stove. I put in some logs, slippers and rubber shoes and waited until they had completely burned. The court documents appear to confirm earlier fears, after it was reported in May that investigators were combing through ashes found in her home. Six Romanians will stand trial in August for what has been called the "theft of the century." The seven masterpieces were swiped from Rotterdam's Kunsthal museum on October 16 in less than 90 seconds. Waterloo Bridge, London by Claude Monet is one of the works that was stolen and is now feared to have been destroyed by a suspect's mother. The heist gripped The Netherlands and the art world as police struggled to solve the crime, putting 25 officers on the case. The works stolen include Picasso's Tete d'Arlequin, Monet's Waterloo Bridge and Lucian Freud's Woman with Eyes Closed.