Two Stolen Renoir Paintings Recovered, Six Arrested

The theft took place in the early hours of September 8. According to the regional prosecutor's office, the thieves cut through a garden fence, climbed in through a window and seized four of the museum's most valuable works in an operation that lasted less than three minutes. Their escape did not go entirely to plan, however. Alarms alerted the police, who arrived and gave chase, and the intruders dropped two of the paintings, "Madame Pichon" and "Coco Reading", a portrait of Renoir's young son Claude, in the museum gardens as they fled. Investigators then launched a nationwide search for the culprits and the two missing canvases. The stakes were high: works by Renoir, the painter after whom the museum is named, have fetched tens of millions of dollars at auction.

Exactly how the paintings were found remains unclear. The mayor's statement did not explain how investigators had located them, and neither the police nor the public prosecutor's office in Marseille immediately responded to questions from reporters. The break-in had revived painful memories of last year's spectacular theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris. It also renewed calls for tighter security, as well as more funding, at the many cultural sites, both large and small, that are spread across France. For now, however, the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer is celebrating the recovery of the two missing masterpieces.