Four Paintings Stolen from France’s Renoir Museum in Predawn Raid

Thieves stole four paintings by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir Tuesday morning from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, in southern France, according to a report by Le Monde and AFP. 

In their haste, the two suspects abandoned two of four paintings, according to BFM TV, but managed to escape with two artworks, estimated to be worth €9 million ($10.5 million). The museum’s alarm system went off at 5:48 a.m. (local time), with police reportedly arriving on site in five minutes.

“Attacking the Renoir Museum is an attack on a part of Cagnes-sur-Mer’s history and heritage,” said Bryan Masson, the city’s mayor. He said that the thieves used “an electric knife” or “a metal saw” to cut the bolts from which the paintings hung, according to the New York Times.

The Renoir Museum was the artist’s last home, and it exhibits his paintings, sculptures, and furniture. Prior to the robbery, the museum had on view 12 of Renoir’s paintings. The stolen artworks are Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895), Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910), Coco Lisant (1905), and Jeune fille au puits (1886). It was not clear at the time of writing which two artworks were abandoned. Masson said the thieves “fled by running in the gardens.”

A Renoir blockbuster exhibition, titled “Renoir and Love” and featuring 40 paintings by the artist, is opening at the National Gallery in London on October 3, after debuting over the summer at the Musée d’Orsay in Paris.

Small museums outside major cities have recently been the targets of thefts. In August, Italian police recovered three artworks stolen in March from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca near Parma in Northern Italy. The paintings included Paul Cézanne’s Still Life with Cherries (1890), Henri Matisse’s Odalisque on the Terrace (1922), and Renoir’s late-career Les Poissons (1917). The collective pieces were valued to be in excess of $10.4 million. A report by the BBC in March noted that Les Poissons, the sole oil on canvas, is worth the most, valued at around €6 million ($6.9 million).

In France, multiple museums have been hit since the brazen theft of $102 million worth of jewels from the Louvre, including nearly 2,000 gold and silver coins from the House of Enlightenment, Denis Diderot in Landres and a 2,500-year-old golden torque from the Vix Treasure from the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais in Burgundy. In response to the Louvre theft and the ensuing ones, the French Culture Ministry announced in July a security plan that lists 33 new measures, including temporarily taking objects of view and regularly running museum security audits.

“Today’s theft of four Renoir works,” said James Ratcliffe, director of recoveries and general counsel of the Art Loss Register, “is a useful, if sad, reminder that museum security is a complex area and that just as museums have been adapting to the increased targeting of objects made of precious metals and gemstones for the commodity value, they must also remain alert to the risk of more traditional art theft.”

He continued, “This theft also demonstrates yet again the urgency of investing in the security of our museums. Plans such as the one announced by the French government in July to improve museum security will only succeed if adequately funded and a long term commitment is made. Sadly, without further funding to improve museum security, we are likely to see an increase in the number of museum thefts we see. 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.”