Thieves Steal 2 Renoir Paintings From French Riviera Museum, Drop 2 More

Police are searching for thieves who stole two Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera in the early hours of Tuesday, after dropping or dumping two others.

Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson said thieves took the priceless paintings “Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well” from the Renoir Museum after breaking in just before 6 a.m., cutting a hole in the fence and entering through a window.

The Marseille prosecutor’s office said two other paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “The Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Coco Reading,” had been dropped in the gardens of the museum after the police arrived and gave chase.

Their swift arrival “forced the burglars to flee in haste and helped limit the scale of the theft,” Masson said.

The two stolen paintings belonged to the Orsay Museum in Paris and were on loan to the museum, which is located in the artist’s former home.

Renoir died in 1919 in the house overlooking Nice. The museum was founded in 1960. It had 13 of his paintings on display, as well as 40 sculptures, photographs and pieces of furniture.

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The prosecutor’s office said an investigation had been opened into the incident, which is believed to have been carried out by an organized gang.

Arthur Brand, a private art detective based in the Netherlands, said famous pieces of art are worth nothing after being stolen.

“People always think that there is this kind of ‘Dr. No’ type from the James Bond movie,“ Brand said. ”But that’s Hollywood. In the real world, there are no collectors like that.”

Masson, a member of the right-wing National Rally (RN) party, said museums across France need better security.

“This incident should serve as a wake-up call about the protection of our museums, which are now facing a new form of crime targeting works of art,” he said.

French President Emmanuel Macron’s government has come under pressure to tackle security failures in the nation’s museums.

Questions about security arrangements at the Louvre Museum in Paris, which attracts close to 9 million visitors per year, were raised in the aftermath of the daytime theft on Oct. 19 last year when 88 million euros ($102 million) worth of jewels was taken.

A video clip later emerged of two men slowly descending a ladder on a motorized basket lift, following a smash-and-grab robbery from the Apollo Gallery.

A French parliamentary report published in May said museums lacked resources and were ill-prepared to protect precious artworks and cultural artifacts.

Last month, Italian police recovered ‌three paintings by Renoir and fellow French masters Paul Cézanne and ‌Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a museum in the city of Parma in March. On that occasion, the Renoir painting was “Les ​Poissons.”

The Associated Press and Reuters contributed to this report.