Two men broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town on the French Riviera near Nice, in the early hours of Tuesday (September 8) and took four canvases by the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir valued at €9 million (about 53 million reais), according to the town's mayor, Bryan Masson. The thieves dropped one of the paintings as they fled; the other three remain missing.
How the robbery unfolded
According to the mayor, quoted by the news agency AFP, the museum alarm was triggered at 5:48 a.m. local time (12:48 a.m. in Brasília), and municipal police officers arrived five minutes later. They chased the two men, who dropped one of the canvases. "Identified by the town's security cameras, the two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings," the mayor's office said in a statement. Photographs released by AFP show officers next to a hole cut in the museum's outer fence.
The mayor did not identify the works. According to the French regional newspaper Nice-Matin, the targets were Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895), Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910), Coco Lisant (1905) and Jeune fille au puits (1886), all by Renoir. It remains unclear which one was left behind.
The museum opened in 1960 in the last home of Renoir (1841-1919), on a hill in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the painter spent his final years and died. According to Reuters, the collection on display includes 13 paintings by the artist, about 40 sculptures, furniture and photographs; the house also preserves his easel and his wheelchair, according to AFP.
A wave of museum robberies in France
The theft comes almost a year after the robbery at the Louvre, the world's most visited museum, in central Paris, when thieves carrying power tools snatched eight French Crown jewels in broad daylight and escaped on scooters; the jewels are still missing, according to AFP. In early July, thieves stole jewelry worth more than €4.5 million from the Lalique Museum north of Strasbourg. Later that month, a gold necklace from the Celtic-era Vix Treasure was taken in broad daylight from a museum in Burgundy. Europol, the European police agency, said last month that art thefts in Europe are becoming more violent. In July, France's Culture Ministry presented a plan of 33 measures and recommended that museums temporarily remove the most vulnerable pieces from their display cases. "The aim is to keep the most vulnerable objects safe until the security of their display can be guaranteed," the ministry said in a statement.
"Since this morning, both the municipal and the national police have been mobilized at the site. The perpetrators are being actively sought, and the investigation is under way," Mayor Bryan Masson said.
As of the publication of the reports consulted, no arrests had been announced and no one had been formally identified as responsible for the robbery. No date has been set for the next step in the inquiry, which is in the hands of the French police; any charges would depend on the outcome of the investigation.