PARIS, Jan. 2 (Xinhua) -- Some 30 paintings worth around one million euros (1.4 U.S. million dollars) as a whole were reported stolen from a private building in the southern French city of Cadiere d'Azur, local media reported Saturday.

    Local authority told French media that the disappearance of the paintings, including works by Picasso and Rousseau, was reported by a housekeeper Thursday afternoon, while the theft took place possibly between Wednesday and Thursday when the house owner was on vacation in Sweden.

    The exact loss of the owner's collection of the pricey paintings still needed to be calculated, local police said.

    The theft came just two days after an 1877 pastel by French artist Degas was stolen from the Cantini museum in Marseille on New Year's Eve. That masterwork was later estimated worth 800,000 euros (1.12 million U.S. dollars) by the Orsay Museum in Paris. Investigation is still underway.