"Jeune femme au puits" is still missing. Renoir Museum
"Madame Colonna Romano" remains missing. Renoir Museum
"Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon" has been recovered. Renoir Museum
"Coco lisant" has been found. Renoir Museum
Thieves took less than five minutes to steal four paintings from the Renoir Museum in southern France on Tuesday, abandoning two as they fled, in the latest heist targeting art and cultural artifacts.
The incident has sparked calls for better security for cultural institutions, with the local mayor’s office urging the French government to provide additional funding to help protect collections “against increasingly organised and determined criminals.”
The museum’s alarm system went off at 5:48 a.m. local time Tuesday (11:48 p.m. ET Monday), and police arrived at the scene five minutes later, said Bryan Masson, mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the museum is located, in a post on Facebook.
Four of the 12 works by Impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir displayed at the museum were stolen, the mayor’s office said in a statement. As the thieves fled, they were “forced to abandon” two of the paintings.
“Renoir has been one of the more frequently stolen artists of the last century,” with thefts in 1951, 1985, 1990, 2000 and this past March 2026.
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