In brief
Early Tuesday, thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes‑sur‑Mer and stole four paintings, dropping two of them in the gardens before fleeing. The two recovered works—Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895) and Coco Lisant (1905)—were recovered by police, while a 1910 Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and an 1886 Jeune fille au puits remain missing. Both police and the mayor said the robbers were armed with electric knives, hacksaws and combat gear, and had cut through fences and frame supports. The incident highlights a growing wave of organised art thefts plaguing European museums and has prompted calls for increased security funding.
Two paintings by the famed impressionist painter Pierre‑Auguste Renoir were stolen from the museum in the south of France.
Early on Tuesday, four stealers burst into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes‑sur‑Mer, cutting through the perimeter fence, crushing the metal clamps that held the frames in place, and taking the four works. The alarms tripped at 05:48 and police arrived within five minutes; the burglars fled upon hearing the alarms, discarding two paintings in the museum gardens before escaping.
The recovered pieces are Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895) and Coco Lisant (1905). The mayor, Bryan Masson, confirmed that the burglars were “well‑equipped” and “well‑informed”, wearing helmets, gloves, combat gear and carrying electric knives and hacksaws.
The theft follows a string of recent art heists across Europe, including a 2025 Louvre jewellery robbery and a 2024 theft of four Renaissance works in Sicily. Masson urged the French government to allocate more financial support for museums to safeguard works from increasingly organised and determined criminal groups.
The Renoir Museum, opened in 1960, houses 12 of the painter’s works and many items from his personal life. It was his last home before his death in 1919.
