Paintings by Picasso, Matisse Stolen in Paris

The paintings disappeared early Thursday from the Paris Museum of Modern Art, across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower. Investigators have cordoned off the museum, in one of the French capital's most tourist-frequented neighborhoods.

The museum's security system was disabled, and a single masked intruder was caught on a video surveillance camera, according to Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall.

Investigators are trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. He said three guards were on duty overnight but “they saw nothing."

The intruder entered by cutting a padlock on a gate and breaking a museum window, the Paris prosecutor's office said.

The prosecutor's office initially estimated the five paintings' total worth at as much as euro500 million ($613 million).

Girard, however, said the total value was “just under 100 million euros."

He said “Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas) an ochre and brown Cubist oil painting by Pablo Picasso, was worth an estimated euro23 million, and “La Pastorale" (Pastoral), an oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse about euro15 million.

The other paintings stolen were “L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque; “La femme a l'eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani; and “Nature-mort aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.

Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft “appears to be one of the biggest" art heists ever, considering the estimated value, the prominence of the artists and the high profile of the museum.