Four Renoir paintings worth millions stolen in French museum heist

Four paintings by the impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been stolen from a museum in the south of France.

Two thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on Tuesday morning but dropped two of the paintings in the institution’s garden as they made their escape, local Mayor Bryan Masson said.

“Attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” he said.

The paintings, each worth €9m (£7.7m; $10.4m), are the latest high-profile pieces to have been stolen this year following a string of heists in Europe – which have included four Renaissance paintings being stolen from a museum in Sicily just last month.

CCTV footage has captured the thieves entering the museum gardens by cutting through a fence before they cut through structures holding the paintings’ frames in place, the local mayor said.

He added that two painting were “abandoned” in the gardens and have now been recovered.

The two paintings that are still missing are:

• Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910)
• Jeune fille au puits (1886)

And the two pieces that were recovered are:

• Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895)
• Coco Lisant (1905)

“It’s Renoir’s, it is priceless, you cannot sell it like that,” the mayor told reporters at the museum.

The museum’s alarm went off at 05:48 local time (06:48 BST), and police were at the scene within five minutes, Masson explained, saying the thieves fled the scene upon hearing the security alarms.

Masson later told reporters that the thieves seemed to be “well-equipped” and “well-informed”.

They were “wearing helmets, gloves, and combat gear” and carrying “an electric knife and hacksaw,” Masson said.

Masson also confirmed that investigators had found two zip-up bags at the scene, which may have belonged to the suspects.

The Renoir Museum is home to 12 of the famous painter’s artworks.

Opened in 1960, it was Renoir’s last home before his death in 1919, and also features many things that once belonged to him, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as photographs and personal letters.

The robbery has once again thrust the security of art in some of Europe’s leading galleries and museums into the spotlight.

One of the most high-profile was in October last year, when a brazen heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris saw France’s priceless crown jewels being stolen.

“Beyond Cagnes-sur-Mer, this incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums, which now face a new form of organised crime targeting works of art,” Masson warned.

The mayor called on the French government to provide more financial support to local areas and museums to protect artwork from “increasingly organised and determined criminals”.