Two thieves broke into the Musee Renoir on the French Riviera before dawn on Tuesday, stole four paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and got away before police arrived — with most reporting saying two of the works were left behind in the museum garden.
The break-in happened at the Musee Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town in the Alpes-Maritimes department in southeastern France. The museum sits at Les Collettes, the house where Renoir lived and painted from 1907 until his death in 1919. The property has operated as a public museum since 1960 and holds about a dozen of his works.
An alarm went off at 5:48 a.m. local time. Municipal police reached the museum roughly five minutes later, but the thieves were already gone. Footage from the town’s surveillance cameras shows two people at the scene; their identities have not been released, and no one has been arrested.
Key facts
- What happened: Two thieves stole four Renoir paintings from the Musee Renoir before dawn on Tuesday
- Where: Musee Renoir, Les Collettes, Cagnes-sur-Mer, in the Alpes-Maritimes department of southeastern France
- When: Alarm sounded at 5:48 a.m. local time; municipal police arrived roughly five minutes later
- Recovered, according to most reporting: “Coco Lisant” and “Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon,” abandoned in the museum garden during the getaway
- Reported as still missing: “Portrait de Madame Colonna Romano” and an 1886 well-scene work reported under variant titles including “Jeune femme au puits” and “Jeune fille au puits” (“Young Woman/Girl at the Well”)
- Estimated value: About €9 million, a figure given by Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson; reports do not clearly specify which works the estimate covers
- Investigation: Grasse public prosecutor’s office has opened an inquiry with an organized-crime unit; no one has been identified or arrested
- Museum status: Closed to the public until further notice, no reopening date announced
How they got in
French outlet franceinfo reported that the pair first cut through wire fencing to reach the museum’s gardens. From there, they broke through a glass door to get into the building itself, then used a metal saw to cut through the mechanisms holding the paintings’ frames in place.
Four taken; two reported recovered on the spot
The thieves took four paintings off the wall: “Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon” (1895), “Portrait de Madame Colonna Romano” (1910), “Coco Lisant” (1905) and an 1886 well-scene work reported under variant titles including “Jeune femme au puits” and “Jeune fille au puits” (“Young Woman/Girl at the Well”).
Most reporting says two of them didn’t make it off the property. According to most reporting, “Coco Lisant” and “Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon” were abandoned in the garden during the getaway and recovered on site.
Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson put the reported total damage from the theft at roughly €9 million; the available reporting does not clearly specify which works the estimate covers. He said the museum’s alarm and sirens appear to have forced the thieves to rush, and that they took only four of the roughly twelve works the museum holds.
What the mayor said, and what’s still unknown
Masson described the people behind the break-in as a “well-equipped and apparently well-informed team” and called the theft a very serious incident that targets part of Cagnes-sur-Mer’s history and heritage. He also floated the idea that the operation could have been carried out to order for someone — though he stressed that’s speculation, and that the investigation will determine what actually happened.
The public prosecutor’s office in Grasse has opened a formal inquiry into the theft, with an organized-crime unit involved and fingerprint analysis underway. Nobody has been identified or arrested, and the thieves’ motive — a black-market sale, a private buyer, or something else — has not been established.
This theft has no confirmed connection to last October’s jewel heist at the Louvre in Paris, or to a separate theft of Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse works from a private foundation in Italy last March. Both have come up alongside this story mainly because they’re recent French and European art crimes, not because investigators have linked them.
The museum is closed
The Musee Renoir has been closed to the public until further notice, and no reopening date has been announced.