Two paintings stolen from Renoir museum in France
In the French city of Cagnes-sur-Mer, two perpetrators before dawn on Tuesday stole Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s paintings “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well” from the Renoir Museum. While fleeing through the museum garden, they abandoned two other paintings by the artist — “Portrait of Madame Pichon” and “Coco Reading,” Asharq Al-Awsat reports.
Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Brian Masson said the perpetrators cut through a fence with an electric knife or saw and entered the museum through a ground-floor window. The robbery lasted less than three minutes. Masson estimated the value of the works at €9 million.
A series of museum robberies
The theft of Renoir’s works occurred amid a series of robberies at French museums. In July, two men wearing wigs smashed a display case at a museum in Châtillon-sur-Seine and stole a 2,500-year-old gold necklace. It was made from nearly half a kilogram of gold, and the robbery itself lasted less than four minutes.
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Also in July, three masked people stole 27 pieces of jewelry worth more than €4.5 million in total from another French museum. To enter the premises, they forced open two doors. Jean-Christophe Castelain, director of Le Journal des Arts, said that museums in France and other European countries suffered a record 10 robberies this summer. Eight of them targeted jewelry, coins or antiquities that can be melted down.
Funding for security
In an August report, Europol noted that museum robberies are becoming increasingly aggressive: sledgehammers, axes, crowbars and explosives are used to enter buildings and smash display cases. According to the agency, criminals are increasingly choosing items made of gold, other precious metals and gemstones because metals can be melted down and stones can be removed and sold.
The Lalique Museum in Wingen-sur-Moder near the border with Germany has not reopened since jewelry was stolen on July 5. At that time, robbers smashed six display cases with sledgehammers and hammers. Museum director Véronique Brumm-Shaikh said the institution is seeking €200,000 to strengthen security. The French Heritage Foundation also plans to launch a subscription for visits to 500 museums, monuments and castles.
