Picassos, other paintings stolen in Brazil

SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) — Armed with nothing more than a crow- bar and a car jack, it took thieves just three minutes to steal paintings by Pablo Picasso and Candido Portinari, worth millions of dollars, from Brazil’s premier modern art museum.

Authorities said they hit the Sao Paulo Museum of Art just before dawn Thursday — when the city’s busiest avenue is deserted and the guards inside were going through their shift change.