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A Picasso original, gifted to the Athens National Gallery in Greece by the painter himself, was stolen on Monday along with two other valuable paintings and sketches.

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Picasso's Woman's Head was originally given to the gallery in 1949 in celebration of Greece's resistance to Nazi Germany in WWII.

The hiest took place some time before 05:00 and was completed in under seven minutes. Along with the Picasso piece, a Mondrian painting and sketch by Italian artist Guglielmo Caccia have also been stolen.

Forcing open a balcony door, the thieves broke into the back of the gallery. All three artworks were stripped from their frames and taken.

A fourth painting was almost stolen but was dropped by a man running from the building when the guard was alerted and started chasing the thieves.

Picasso's Woman's Head is a Cubist portrait painted by the artist in 1939. The Mondrian oil painting of a riverside windmill dates from 1905, while Caccia's religious scene is a pen and ink drawing.

Multiple alarms were said to have been set off earlier in the evening but when guards inspected the gallery, there was no one to be found.

The worth of the stolen artwork has yet to be determined.

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