Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano by Pierre-Auguste Renoir
French police have recovered the two paintings stolen from the Musée Renoir in September.
On September 8th, two burglars broke into the Musée Renoir in the French Riviera town of Cagnes-sur-Mer. They hoped to steal four paintings that morning but made off with only two, leaving the others behind. The successfully stolen paintings were Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Jeune femme au puits, collectively worth around €9 million.
Police have arrested six men they believe are connected to the Renoir museum robbery. After the incident, investigators found DNA evidence at the scene, which helped identify two of the suspects. French authorities stated they hoped to locate and recover the missing paintings before making any arrests. However, the suspects forced them to act quicker than anticipated. On October 3rd, one of the two men was observed visiting the Fondation Maeght, a museum in the southern French town of Saint-Paul-de-Vence. Despite its small size, the museum is an important site for modern art admirers, featuring works by Marc Chagall, Joan Miró, and Alexander Calder. Police therefore suspected that the same people behind the Renoir robbery were planning to steal works from the Fondation Maeght. After searching a house west of Montpellier, police found the two missing Renoir paintings behind a false wall. While both works are slightly damaged, authorities say they are in good overall condition.
Many have commented that France, in particular, has seen an increase in robberies at museums and other cultural centers. Specifically, thefts of precious metals and gemstones from museums have been on the rise, most infamously the $102 million heist of the French crown jewels at the Louvre in 2025. However, other high-profile robberies across Europe have also occurred this year, including a €3.5 million diamond necklace taken from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts, four Renaissance-era Antonello da Messina paintings from a Sicilian museum, and a trove of Bronze Age artifacts from the Museum of Villena in Spain. And all of that was only in August.
Cagnes-sur-Mer mayor Bryan Masson called the Renoir paintings’ recovery “a source of immense joy and a great relief.” The Marseille Interdisciplinary Center for Heritage Conservation and Reservation has taken custody of the paintings. Its staff plans to collaborate with specialists from the Musée d’Orsay to examine the works thoroughly.