French police have arrested at least five individuals linked to the theft of two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir from a museum in southern France, local media reported. The arrests follow a dawn robbery at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer that took place on September 8.
According to the local mayor, two burglars breached the facility by cutting through a fence and smashing a window. Once inside, they used an electric saw to remove four artworks from their frame mountings. However, upon hearing police alerted by the alarm system, the thieves abandoned two pieces in the museum’s garden while fleeing.
The stolen works are valued at approximately €9 million ($10.5 million). The missing pieces are identified as Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano, painted in 1910, and Jeune fille au puits, created in 1886. The newspaper Nice Martin, which first reported the arrests, stated that six people were taken into custody, including the two suspected perpetrators. The current whereabouts of the artworks remain unknown.
Prosecutors in Marseille, who are overseeing the investigation, declined to comment on the development. The Renoir Museum, established in 1960, is located in the former home and studio of the French Impressionist painter. It houses 12 of his works and is set within gardens featuring olive trees.
This incident marks another high-profile art theft in Europe, echoing the daylight robbery of French crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris last year. In that case, four suspects were arrested, but the stolen jewelry, valued at roughly $100 million, has yet to be recovered.
Did anyone notice the mayor said four works were taken, but only two are listed as stolen? Where are the other two?
It’s terrifying that the crown jewels still haven’t been found from last year. Justice feels delayed, not denied.
€9 million for two canvases and five people were caught? I wonder if the buyers knew exactly what they were purchasing.
An electric saw inside a museum? These thieves must be quite professional to bypass the alarm system so easily.
Five arrests is progress, but let’s hope the paintings are recovered this time, unlike the Louvre jewels.