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Police on alert after threat on Swedish banks

Police have upped their presence in Dalsland and Värmland counties in central and eastern Sweden after receiving information of an increased threat against banks in the region.

“It is our priority to prevent serious criminal acts from being carried out and therefore we are taking police precautions,” said Sven Ahlbin of the regional police in western Sweden in a statement on Thursday.

The information received by officers is regarding the situation in the Västra Götaland region, on one side of the Dalsland border, but police are not ruling out that it will spill over into the adjoining counties as well.

Ahlbin was not willing to say what kind of tip-off or information officers have received but said that there was a similar situation a few years ago.

“Then we upped our presence in the area and nothing happened,” he said to TT.

Ahlbin declared the action a success, adding that at the time of the tip they had rather strong indications that something was afoot.

The increased presence in the region involves additional patrol cars and helicopters, according to the local police.

“In the Västra Götaland region they have classified this threat as serious and appointed staff particularly to deal with the increased threat. We have not made that call in Värmland, “ said Tommy Lindh of the Värmland police to TT.

“But we are working together. All decisions are taken jointly.”

Värmland has been hit by many bank robberies in the last few years. The latest was carried out in Töcksfors in August.

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ART

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht

A Spanish court has sentenced a former top banker to 18 months in jail for trying to smuggle a Picasso painting deemed a national treasure out of the country on a sailing yacht.

Spanish banker gets jail term for trying to smuggle Picasso masterpiece out of Spain on yacht
Head of a Young Woman by Pablo Picasso Photo: AFP

The court also fined ex-Bankinter head Jaime Botín €52.4 million ($58.4 million), according to the Madrid court ruling issued on January 14th which was made public on Thursday.   

It awarded ownership of the work, “Head of a Young Girl”, to the Spanish state.

Botin, 83, is unlikely to go to prison as in Spain first offenders for non-violent crimes are usually spared jail time for sentences of less than two years.   

French customs seized the work, which is estimated to be worth €26 million, in July 2015 on the Mediterranean island of Corsica, halting what they said was an attempt by Botin to export it to Switzerland to sell it.

His lawyers argued at the time that he was sending it for storage in a vault in Geneva but the court found him guilty of “smuggling cultural goods” for removing the painting “from national territory without a permit”.

Botin, whose family are one of the founders of the Santander banking group, had been trying since 2012 to obtain authorisation to export the painting.   

However Spain's culture ministry refused the request because there was “no similar work on Spanish territory” from the same period in Picasso's life.    

In 2015, a top Spanish court sided with the authorities and declared the work of art “unexportable” on the grounds that it was of “cultural interest”.    

Picasso painted it during his pre-Cubist phase in Gosol, Catalonia, in 1906. It was bought by Botin in London in 1977.

Botin's lawyers had argued that the work should not be subjected to an export ban since it was acquired in Britain and was on board a British-flagged vessel when it was seized.

When customs officials boarded the yacht, its captain only presented two documents — one of which was the court ruling ordering that the painting be kept in Spain.

The painting is currently stored at the Reina Sofia modern art museum in Madrid, which houses Picasso's large anti-war masterpiece “Guernica”.

READ MORE: Banking family's Picasso seized on Corsica boat

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