The thieves abandoned two of the paintings in the museum’s garden as they escaped, according to local authorities. The four works were estimated by the mayor’s office to be worth about €9 million.
The two paintings still missing are Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Young Woman at the Well (1886). Both belong to Paris’ Musée d’Orsay and had been loaned to the Renoir Museum.
The two recovered works are Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895) and Coco Reading (1905), a portrait of Renoir’s son Claude.
The break-in took place shortly before 6 a.m. The museum’s alarm went off at 5:48 a.m., and municipal police arrived five minutes later. CCTV footage helped authorities spot the suspects, who fled when police arrived.
Read also : 673-diamond necklace made for Egypt’s Queen Nazli stolen in Vienna
Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson said the thieves appeared to be well equipped. They reportedly cut through a fence around the museum’s garden before entering the building and removing the paintings from their frames.
The Renoir Museum opened in 1960 in the house where the artist spent the final years of his life before his death in 1919. The site contains Renoir’s paintings as well as personal belongings, including his easel and wheelchair.
The theft comes less than a year after the Louvre was robbed in Paris, where jewelry worth about €88 million was stolen in a daylight heist. French and European authorities have since faced a series of museum thefts, including recent robberies in Italy and France.
Europol said last month that art thefts in Europe were becoming more violent, with specialist gangs increasingly giving way to opportunistic criminals recruited through social media.
