Two people broke into the Renoir museum early this Tuesday in the French town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, located on the French Riviera near Nice, and took four works of art, three of which remain missing, while the French Police continue searching for the perpetrators of the theft.
“This morning, two individuals entered the Renoir museum and stole four works of art. The museum alarm was triggered at 5:48 a.m. At 5:53 a.m., that is, five minutes later, our Municipal Police were already on site,” confirmed the town’s mayor, Bryan Masson, in a message on social media.
In it, he detailed that the perpetrators of the theft were identified thanks to the municipal surveillance cameras. “The two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings during their escape,” he specified.
Masson denounced that “attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage” of the town, emphasizing the seriousness of the case.
In his opinion, it also highlights the need to implement a security plan for museums and to strengthen the protection of art pieces. “We will put all necessary means in place to better protect this heritage that belongs to all the inhabitants of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” he pointed out.
According to him, the Municipal Police and the National Police are mobilized in the area and continue searching for the people involved in the attack on the museum. “They are being actively sought and the investigation is ongoing,” summarized the mayor of the National Assembly.
The museum’s collection contains 14 original paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir as well as his 40 sculptures, his furniture, and his studio, since it is the house where the master of Impressionism spent the last 12 years of his life. He died in 1919 at the age of 78 in Cagnes-sur-Mer suffering from pneumonia.
Read more Argentina will take five oil companies to court over operations in the Falklands
