Thieves steal paintings from Renoir Museum on French Riviera

Thieves steal paintings from Renoir Museum on French Riviera

Thieves grabbed 4 paintings in total, officials say, but abandoned 2 of them as they fled

Thieves stole four paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, the local mayor said, but dropped two of them in the gardens ​as police, alerted by alarms, gave chase ​early Tuesday.

The most valuable works of the impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir have fetched dozens of millions of dollars at auctions.

Mayor ​Bryan Masson said the thieves broke ⁠into the museum a little ‌before 6 a.m. through a hole made in a garden fence to snatch four paintings — the latest of a series of brazen art thefts in the country.

"Attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer. These actions are particularly serious," Masson said.

Thieves in balaclavas, on motorbikes steal crown jewels in Louvre heist

The ‌two stolen paintings were Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well, the municipality said. Both belong to Paris's famous Orsay Museum and were on loan to Cagnes-sur-Mer's Renoir Museum.

"It's Renoir's, it is priceless, you ⁠cannot sell it like that," the mayor told reporters, speaking in front of the museum.

The museum was created in 1960 in the mansion of the artist on a hill in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice, where Renoir died in 1919. The collection on display in the museum includes 13 paintings from the master and some 40 sculptures, furniture and photographs.

Theft follows 2025 Louvre heist

Art thieves in Europe are committing more violent robberies, and specialist gangs have been replaced by ad hoc ​opportunists recruited through social media, pan-European police body Europol said last month.

The heist at ‌the Louvre Museum in Paris in October of last year was a prime example of this, Europol said, as the thieves threatened guards and visitors and stole €88 million ($141.5 million Cdn) worth of jewels, such ​as Empress Eugenie's tiara.