Paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth over $10.4 million which were stolen from an Italian museum in March have been recovered, police said Friday.<\/p>\n
The paintings were taken by thieves from the villa of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, near Parma in northern Italy, in a heist that lasted under three minutes.<\/p>\n
Parma chief of police Andrea Pagliaro told AFP the investigation centred around a gang of nine Moldavian suspects.<\/p>\n
Five are accused of carrying out the theft, he said.<\/p>\n
Video footage released by police showed two thieves wearing headlamps and with their faces covered entering the villa by breaking through a window.<\/p>\n
They headed straight into a room where the three paintings hung and took them off the wall, before heading back to the window and passing them through to an accomplice waiting outside.<\/p>\n
They made off with “Fish” by Auguste Renoir, “Still Life with Cherries” by Paul Cezanne, and “Odalisque on the Terrace” by Henri Matisse.<\/p>\n
The Renoir is worth three million euros ($3.5 million), the Cezanne six million euros and the Matisse some 20,000 euros, police said.<\/p>\n
The paintings were recovered at the house of one of the suspects, police chief Pagliaro told AFP.<\/p>\n
The Magnani-Rocca Foundation — 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Parma — houses the collection of art historian Luigi Magnani, which also includes works by Durer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya and Monet.<\/p>\n
The theft is the latest in a series of robberies targeting European museums.<\/p>\n
Last October, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight, escaping in less than eight minutes with jewellery worth $102 million.<\/p>\n
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