Renoir Museum heist on French Riviera: Art worth €9 million stolen

According to Le Monde, two unidentified intruders successfully breached the estate, making off with invaluable impressionist masterpieces.

According to local authorities, the thieves cut through a perimeter fence and shattered a glass bay window at the ground-level workshop to gain access to the Domaine des Collettes, the home and studio of late master painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

The museum’s security alarm triggered at 5:48 am, prompting a rapid response from the municipal police, who arrived on the scene just five minutes later.

The suspects fled the premises as soon as they realized the law enforcers were closing in. In their haste, they dropped one of the paintings in the garden.

Cagnes-sur-Mer mayor Bryan Masson condemned the break-in, stating that an assault on the museum is ‘an attack on the very history and heritage of our town”. He estimated the total value of the stolen artwork at €9 million. The French organized crime unit has officially taken over the investigation, and a manhunt is underway.

It bears to remind that the latest heist comes nearly a year after the multi-million euro robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris, where eight French Crown Jewels were stolen from the Galerie d’Apollon.