{"id":1194352,"date":"2026-09-09T03:17:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:17:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1194352\/"},"modified":"2026-09-09T03:17:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-09T03:17:19","slug":"renoir-paintings-stolen-from-museum-in-southern-france-arts-and-culture-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1194352\/","title":{"rendered":"Renoir paintings stolen from museum in southern France | Arts and Culture News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thieves abandon two of four stolen paintings in museum\u2019s garden as they flee.<\/p>\n

<\/a><\/p>\n

Published On 8 Sep 20268 Sep 2026<\/p>\n

Two paintings have been stolen from a museum dedicated to French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France in an early-morning burglary.<\/p>\n

Two thieves broke into the museum in the coastal Cagnes-sur-Mer area, near the city of Nice, a little before 6am local time (04:00 GMT) and initially took four paintings, Mayor Bryan Masson said in a social media post on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

Recommended Stories list of 3 itemsend of list<\/p>\n

Two of the stolen works \u2013 Renoir\u2019s \u201cPortrait of Madame Pichon\u2033 and \u201cCoco Reading\u201d \u2013 were later found dropped in the museum garden, the prosecutor\u2019s office said in a statement.<\/p>\n

The two still-missing paintings are \u201cPortrait of Madame Colonna Romano\u201d and \u201cYoung Woman at the Well\u201d, it added.<\/p>\n

Masson estimated the value of the combined Renoir works stolen on Tuesday at 9 million euros ($10.5m), but art theft experts said they will be extremely hard to sell.<\/p>\n

\"A\u2018Young Woman at the Well\u2019 by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir was stolen from Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, September 8, 2026 [Musee Renoir\/Handout via Reuters]<\/p>\n

The \u201cwell-equipped\u201d and \u201cwell-informed\u201d thieves entered the Renoir Museum via the garden, Masson told reporters at the scene.<\/p>\n

They sliced through a fence with an electric knife or saw, entered the museum through the ground floor, and then cut the clips securing the artwork frames, Masson told local broadcaster Ici Azur.<\/p>\n

The Renoir Museum was opened in 1960 in the painter\u2019s last home before his death in 1919.<\/p>\n

Its collection includes objects and furniture that belonged to Renoir, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as 13 paintings and about 40 sculptures made by the master.<\/p>\n

The mayor said it took only five minutes for the authorities to respond.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe museum alarm went off at 5:48 am [03:48 GMT]. At 5:53 am [03:53 GMT], just five minutes later, our municipal police were at the scene,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"RassemblementCagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson in the coastal town, home to the Renoir Museum, September 8, 2026 [Valery Hache\/AFP]<\/p>\n

The museum closed on Tuesday as the investigation got underway.<\/p>\n

The Marseille prosecutor opened a theft investigation into an organised gang, with the French national office for traffic in cultural goods joining the probe.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums,\u201d the mayor said.<\/p>\n

The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at about $100m were stolen during a daylight robbery<\/a> from the famed Louvre Museum in Paris.<\/p>\n

Although the four suspected Louvre robbers<\/a> have been arrested, the stolen items have still not been found despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region and collaboration with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Thieves abandon two of four stolen paintings in museum\u2019s garden as they flee. Published On 8 Sep 20268…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1194353,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,42521,4020,188,4022,77,299,36,12,529,16,15],"class_list":["post-1194352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-arts-and-design","tag-crime","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-news","tag-police","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/117238922656439783","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1194352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1194352\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1194353"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1194352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1194352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1194352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}