Two thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, southern France, on Tuesday, stealing works linked to French Impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir with an estimated total value of £7.5million.
‘This morning, two individuals broke into the Renoir Museum and stole four works of art,’ said Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer.
Masson said the suspects were identified through the town’s video surveillance system and fled the scene, leaving one of the stolen paintings behind as they escaped. He added that the mayor’s office estimated the works were worth around 9 million euros (£7.5million).
Early findings in the investigation suggest that two people were also captured on CCTV cutting up several paintings, according to reports in local media.
France Televisions reported that the painting recovered after being abandoned in the museum’s garden was Portrait of Madame Stephen Pichon.
The three other paintings reportedly taken in the museum theft are Madame Colonna Romano, The Young Woman at the Well and the well-known Coco Reading.
The Renoir Museum opened in 1960 inside the artist’s final home, where he lived before his death in 1919.
The museum’s collection features personal objects and furniture that belonged to Renoir, including his easel and wheelchair, alongside portraits, landscapes and nudes painted by the celebrated Impressionist artist.
Police officers patrol in front of the entrance of the Musee Renoir after three paintings, valued at nine million euros, were stolen
The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at around £76million were stolen during a daylight robbery from the Louvre in Paris
Carabinieri TPC art squad officers of the Parma Provincial Command posing with recovered valuable artworks by Paul Cezanne (L) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (R) and Henri Matisse
The mayor said it took just five minutes for the authorities to respond to the burglary.
‘The museum alarm went off at 5.48am. At 5.53am, just five minutes later, our municipal police were on the scene,’ he said.
The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at around £76million were stolen during a daylight robbery from the Louvre in Paris.
The four suspected Louvre robbers have been arrested, but the stolen items have still not been found despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region and exchanges with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond.
Since the Louvre robbery, France’s Ministry of Culture has made museum security a priority.
In July, a 33 measure plan was unveiled, recommending temporarily removing certain pieces from display cases.
‘The aim is to shelter the most vulnerable objects in suitable locations that will be identified for each department, pending the securing of their presentation,’ the Ministry said in a statement.
However, that same month, a gold necklace dating from the Celtic period and buried 2,500 years ago in Burgundy, was stolen in broad daylight from a museum in Chatillon-sur-Seine.
Also in July, thieves stole an estimated 4.5million euros worth of jewelry from the Lalique museum in Wingen-sur-Moder.
Just last month, paintings worth more than €9million (£7.7million) were recovered after being stolen in just three minutes by masked thieves from a museum in northern Italy.
Videos showed the thieves sneaking into the Magnani-Rocca Foundation near Parma to steal the works by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse in just 180 seconds.
They stole three paintings – Fish by Auguste Renoir, Still Life with Cherries by Paul Cezanne, and Odalisque on the Terrace by Henri Matisse – from the walls before bringing them back to the window and passing them to an accomplice outside.
Fish is worth £2.6million, Still Life with Cherries £5.1million and Odalisque on the Terrace £17,000.
After being stolen on March 22, the paintings have now been recovered, Italian police said.
Italian police said they had arrested five Moldovans and found the paintings in the storeroom of a house in Parma.
They had been stashed in the cardboard packaging of a flat-screen television.
