Two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that were taken from a museum in the south of France have been recovered roughly a month after the burglary, the Museums Association reports. The works, Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well, were stolen from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on 8 September. Six suspects have been arrested in connection with the case, and four men have been charged.
Both canvases came back damaged and will need restoration, according to Reuters. Madame Colonna Romano was found torn. The two works had been valued at about €4.2m, or £3.6m.
Why it matters
The recovery closes one chapter of a theft that unsettled the town whose identity is bound up with the painter. Renoir spent his final years in Cagnes-sur-Mer, and the museum named for him holds a collection tied to that period of his life. Bryon Masson, the town's mayor, said in a statement on Instagram that getting the paintings back brought "an immense joy and a genuine relief" to residents, describing the works as part of the town's history, its heritage and the legacy Renoir left there. He said the town would keep doing all it could to protect that heritage.
The case also fits a wider pattern that has alarmed European authorities. In August, the European crime agency Europol warned that criminals were changing how they target museums, moving toward very fast smash-and-grab raids that rely on increasing levels of force. The Renoir burglary is the latest in a run of museum heists across Europe in recent years.
How investigators tracked the works down
The break-in at Cagnes-sur-Mer was not a sophisticated affair. According to the Museums Association, the thieves cut a hole in a garden fence to get onto the grounds and then climbed in through a window. Once inside, they took the two paintings and tried to take two more: Madame Pichon and Coco Reading, a portrait of the artist's young son Claude. They left those two behind in the museum gardens as they fled when police arrived.
The investigation that followed drew on DNA evidence, mobile phone location data and surveillance footage, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said. The arrests came earlier this month.
The four men charged face different accusations. Two are suspected of carrying out the burglary itself and have been charged with organised theft and other offences. A third man, accused of hiding the paintings, faces a charge of organised handling of stolen goods. A fourth, who investigators say was approached about buying the works, has been charged with handling stolen goods and with taking part in a criminal conspiracy.
The paintings were discovered concealed behind a false wall inside a house.
The inquiry gained urgency after one of the suspects paid a visit to a different museum. That raised investigators' concern that another theft might be in the works. The suspects have denied planning a second raid. Bessone said he did not accept that the principal suspect had gone to the other museum out of a simple love of art.
The Art Newspaper reported that the suspects were planning a separate robbery at the Fondation Maeght, citing the police chief. The effort involved the Marseille interregional specialised court, police units and France's Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property, known as OCBC, which handles crimes involving cultural goods. The mayor thanked the Marseille court and the national and municipal police, and singled out investigators from the Alpes-Maritimes judicial police service and the OCBC for pursuing the case with determination and discretion.
The paintings are now back in official hands, but not in the condition they left in. Restoration work lies ahead before either can go back on view.
What to watch: how quickly the two damaged canvases can be restored, and whether prosecutors bring further charges as the investigation into the suspected second target continues.
