Thieves have stolen four priceless works by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir worth an estimated £7.7million in a brazen early-morning raid on the artist’s former home.
The spectacular heist has triggered a major manhunt in southern France after two thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer and escaped with paintings valued at €9million.
Alarms were triggered shortly before 6am on Tuesday, but the gang had already made their move.
In a dramatic twist, the thieves were forced to abandon one of the paintings as they fled, leaving behind Portrait of Madame Stephen Pichon, painted in 1895.
Police are now hunting the two suspects while authorities scramble to recover the remaining stolen masterpieces.
The museum’s collection is housed in the mansion where Renoir spent his final years and died in 1919, making the raid an extraordinary attack on one of France’s most important artistic landmarks.
Mayor Bryan Masson vowed to mobilise every available resource following the theft.
He said: “We will dedicate all necessary resources to better protect this heritage, which belongs to all the residents of Cagnes.”
The stolen paintings are understood to include Coco Lisant, a 1905 portrait of Renoir’s young son, Madame Colonna Romano from 1910 and Jeune Femme au puits — The Young Woman at the Well — completed in 1886.
Renoir’s works have fetched tens of millions of pounds at auction, making them a lucrative target for organised criminals and opportunistic thieves.
The museum itself was established in 1960 inside the hilltop mansion near Nice where the impressionist master lived until his death.
Its collection includes 13 paintings by Renoir alongside around 40 sculptures, furniture pieces and photographs.
The extraordinary robbery comes amid growing fears that Europe’s cultural institutions are increasingly being targeted by criminals.
Europol has warned that art theft is changing, with specialist criminal gangs increasingly replaced by loosely organised opportunists recruited through social media.
The raid also follows last year’s spectacular theft at the Louvre in Paris, when criminals threatened guards and visitors before making off with jewels worth €88million, including the tiara of Empress Eugénie.
Now French police face another race against time — with four Renoir masterpieces worth millions potentially already disappearing into the criminal underworld.
The hunt for the thieves is under way.
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