The two paintings stolen a month ago from the Renoir museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes) have been found, the city’s mayor, Bryan Masson (RN), announced on Friday, confirming information from BFM after a series of arrests.
On September 8, two thieves broke into the museum, sawed off the hangers of four paintings and managed to escape with two of the works, abandoning the other two in the garden.
The Marseille prosecutor’s office, in charge of the investigation after the withdrawal of the Grasse prosecutor’s office, as well as the judicial police, did not immediately communicate.
On Thursday, several media announced the coordinated arrest of six people, including the two suspected of having been the burglars, in the Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Hérault and Doubs. A source close to the investigation confirmed five arrests to AFP.
“These two paintings are not simple works of art. They belong to the history of our city, to our heritage and to the legacy left by Auguste Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Knowing they have been found is an immense relief,” Mr. Masson said in a press release.
The location of discovery of the works and their condition have not been specified.
The theft took place in a few minutes shortly before 6 a.m. in the municipal museum set up in the villa where the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) lived the last years of his life.
“Well-informed” commando
According to Mr. Masson (RN), the commando, “well equipped and well informed”, had made a hole in the fence to enter the wooded park of the villa, then broke a window to enter the building, before cutting the hooks of the frames with an electric hacksaw.
But a municipal police patrol, warned by the alarm system, intervened within minutes, probably forcing the burglars to rush.
They managed to leave with two oils by Renoir: “Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well”. On the other hand, they had to abandon the portraits “Madame Pichon” and “Coco Reading”, a very famous representation of the painter’s son with long blond hair.
After mentioning a loss of 9 million euros for the four paintings, the town hall did not specify the estimated value of the two stolen paintings.
This theft took place almost a year after the heist at the Louvre, the busiest museum in the world, in the heart of Paris, during which the eight jewels of the Crown of France were stolen from the Apollo gallery, including the tiara of Empress Eugénie, later found very damaged. Damage estimated at 88 million euros.
The Cagnes-sur-Mer burglary had relaunched the debate on the security of French museums, several of which have suffered resounding break-ins in recent months.
In a plan of 33 measures unveiled in July, the Ministry of Culture recommended temporarily removing certain pieces from display cases “pending their presentation being secure”.
