French police hunt Renoir art thieves after lightning museum heist
A duo of thieves stole four paintings, dropping two in the museum's gardens as they fled.
First reported 6 days ago · latest update 6 days ago
Portrait Of Madame Colonna Romano and Jeune Femme Au Puits, by Renoir, remain unrecovered after the art museum theft in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France
French police were still searching for two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum, after abandoning two others as they fled, in a burglary that reignited concerns about the protection of France’s cultural heritage.
The heist is the latest in a string of such robberies including the daylight theft last year of crown jewellery valued at around US$100 million ($170m) from the Louvre in Paris.
The theft in the southern town of Cagnes-sur-Mer took place in a matter of minutes shortly before 6am local time.
Mayor Bryan Masson said the duo appeared “well equipped and well informed” about the museum housing works by French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
The suspects cut through a fence to enter the museum’s tree-lined grounds, smashed a window to get inside, and used an electric saw to cut through the frame mountings, he said.
Citations · 2 reports from 2 outlets
Tap a citation to read it above, right here on T.A.M.
French police hunt Renoir art thieves after lightning museum heist
A duo of thieves stole four paintings, dropping two in the museum's gardens as they fled.
6 days agoFrench police hunt Renoir thieves after lightning museum heist
French police on Tuesday hunted for two thieves who escaped with two Renoir paintings from a museum, after abandoning two others as they fled, in a burglary that reignited concerns about the protection of France's cultural heritage. The heist is the latest in a string of such robberies including the daylight theft last year of crown jewellery valued at around $100 million from the Louvre in Paris. FRANCE 24's Emerald Maxwell.
6 days ago · FRANCE24