Four valuable Renoir paintings were taken during an early-morning raid at a small museum on the French Riviera on Tuesday, though the thieves abandoned two of the works while making their escape. The artworks targeted in the burglary are estimated to be worth a combined £15million.
Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, said at the scene that the intruders appeared to be both “well-equipped” and “well-informed” when they broke into the Renoir Museum through its garden.
According to Masson, the group cut through a fence using what was believed to be an electric knife or saw, then entered the museum at ground level before severing the clips that held the painting frames in place.
The museum alarm was triggered at 5.48am local time, and officers reached the site within five minutes, the mayor said.
In a written statement, Masson credited the rapid police response with “forcing the burglars to flee in haste” and said it helped prevent an even larger loss from the museum’s collection.
Two of the stolen works were found in the museum garden, but the two others are still missing, the statement said: ‘Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano’ and ‘Young Woman at the Well.’
An official with the regional police administration confirmed the theft and the hunt for suspects, and said an investigation is underway.
Police officers arrive at the Renoir Museum as an investigation beings into the art heist
A police officer stands guard at the point where the thieves cut a hole in the outer fence to gain access to the museum
The theft comes less than a year after eight pieces of priceless 19th-century French crown jewels, valued at around £76million, were stolen from the Louvre in Paris during a daylight robbery
Carabinieri TPC art squad officers of the Parma Provincial Command posing with recovered valuable artworks by Paul Cezanne (L) Pierre-Auguste Renoir (R) and Henri Matisse
The museum had 12 works by Renoir in total, the mayor said. The museum was closed Tuesday while the investigation unfolded.
The mayor called for greater security measures for museums around France. ‘This incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums, which now face a new form of organized crime targeting works of art,’ his statement said.
Art theft expert James Ratcliffe of the Art Loss Register said that thieves are increasingly targeting valuable artifacts, including traditional art.
‘Sadly, without further funding to improve museum security, we are likely to see an increase in the number of museum thefts we see.
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‘Each time thefts occur, it draws yet more attention to the perception of these museums as relatively easy targets. That can only encourage some criminals to consider them as straightforward places to steal from.’
The Renoir Museum on the French Riviera was opened in 1960 in Pierre-Auguste Renoir’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 portraits, landscapes, and nudes painted by the artist.
The theft comes less than a year after eight pieces of priceless 19th-century French crown jewels, valued at around £76million, were stolen from Louvre in Paris during a daylight robbery.
Four suspected thieves were later arrested, but the stolen items have still not been found, despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region and exchanges with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond.
Since the Louvre robbery, France’s Ministry of Culture has made museum security a priority.
In July, a 33-measure national security plan was unveiled, recommending temporarily removing certain pieces from display cases.
‘The aim is to shelter the most vulnerable objects in suitable locations that will be identified for each department, pending the securing of their presentation,’ the Ministry said in a statement.
However, that same month, a gold collar dating from the Celtic period, from 2,500 years ago, which had been found buried in Burgundy, was stolen in broad daylight from the archaeological museum in Chatillon-sur-Seine.
Also in July, thieves stole an estimated 4.5million euros worth of jewellery from the Lalique museum in Wingen-sur-Moder in north-eastern France.
And just last month, paintings worth more than €9million (£7.5million) were recovered after being stolen in just three minutes by masked thieves from a museum in northern Italy in March.
Videos showed the thieves sneaking into the Magnani-Rocca Foundation near Parma to steal works by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse in just 180 seconds.
They removed three paintings – Fish by Renoir, Still Life with Cherries by Cezanne, and Odalisque on the Terrace by Matisse – from the walls before handing them out of a window to an accomplice.
Fish is worth £2.6million, Still Life with Cherries £5.1million and Odalisque on the Terrace £17,000.
Italian police found the paintings in the storeroom of a house in Parma, where they arrested five Moldovans. They had been stashed in the cardboard packaging of a flat-screen television.