Two thieves have broken into a museum dedicated to the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France, stealing four artworks and dropping one as they fled, the mayor has said. The museum was opened in 1960 in the painter’s last home before his death in 1919. Its collection includes objects and furniture that belonged to Renoir, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as portraits, landscapes and nudes painted by the artist.
The mayor said it took five minutes for the authorities to respond. At 5.53 am, just five minutes later, our municipal police were on the scene,” he said. The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at around €88m were stolen during a daylight robbery from the Louvre in Paris.
The four suspected Louvre robbers have been arrested, but the stolen items have not been found despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region, and exchanges with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond. Art thieves in Europe are committing more violent robberies and specialist gangs have been replaced by ad-hoc opportunists recruited through social media, Europol said last month.
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