Renoir paintings stolen from museum in southern France
Thieves abandon two of four stolen paintings in museum’s garden as they flee.
Renoir paintings worth $10.5 million missing after museum heist
Two paintings have been stolen from a museum dedicated to French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France in an early-morning burglary.
Two thieves broke into the museum in the coastal Cagnes-sur-Mer area, near the city of Nice, a little before 6am local time (04:00 GMT) and initially took four paintings, Mayor Bryan Masson said in a social media post on Tuesday.
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Two of the stolen works – Renoir’s “Portrait of Madame Pichon″ and “Coco Reading” – were later found dropped in the museum garden, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.
The two still-missing paintings are “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well”, it added.
Masson estimated the value of the combined Renoir works stolen on Tuesday at 9 million euros ($10.5m), but art theft experts said they will be extremely hard to sell.
The “well-equipped” and “well-informed” thieves entered the Renoir Museum via the garden, Masson told reporters at the scene.
They sliced through a fence with an electric knife or saw, entered the museum through the ground floor, and then cut the clips securing the artwork frames, Masson told local broadcaster Ici Azur.
The Renoir Museum was opened in 1960 in the painter’s last home before his death in 1919.
Its collection includes objects and furniture that belonged to Renoir, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as 13 paintings and about 40 sculptures made by the master.
The mayor said it took only five minutes for the authorities to respond.
“The museum alarm went off at 5:48 am [03:48 GMT]. At 5:53 am [03:53 GMT], just five minutes later, our municipal police were at the scene,” he said.
The museum closed on Tuesday as the investigation got underway.
The Marseille prosecutor opened a theft investigation into an organised gang, with the French national office for traffic in cultural goods joining the probe.
“This incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums,” the mayor said.
The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at about $100m were stolen during a daylight robbery from the famed Louvre Museum in Paris.
Although the four suspected Louvre robbers have been arrested, the stolen items have still not been found despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region and collaboration with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond.
