Two Renoir paintings recovered after France museum heist, mayor says

What the report says

Two Renoir paintings stolen from a museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice in southern France, last month have been recovered, the town’s mayor said on Friday, according to Al Jazeera. Bryan Masson said the works are part of the city’s history and described their return as a major relief. Local authorities also said six people have been arrested in connection with the theft.

The paintings were among four works taken in an early-morning break-in at the Renoir Museum on September 8. Al Jazeera reported that the thieves cut through a fence, smashed a window and used an electric saw to remove the paintings from their frames before fleeing after the alarm sounded and municipal police arrived. Two of the works were later found in the museum garden, while the two missing pieces were identified as Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well.

Masson said the stolen works were worth about nine million euros, or roughly $10.5 million. He did not disclose where the recovered paintings were found or their condition. The museum sits in Renoir’s former home, which adds local and historical significance to the case.

The recovery comes amid a series of high-profile museum thefts in France and elsewhere. More broadly, such cases often raise concerns about museum security and the trafficking of cultural property, but those wider issues were not the subject of the official recovery announcement reported by Al Jazeera.