Another art heist hits a French museum

A pair of thieves absconded with two valuable Renoir paintings from a museum on the French Riviera after breaking in early Tuesday morning, the latest in a series of high-value art thefts in the country.

They cut through a garden fence, entered through a ground-floor window and removed four artworks, but dropped two as they fled.

The entire operation lasted less than three minutes at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, investigators said. The museum alarm went off at 5:48 a.m., and police arrived about five minutes later, forcing the thieves to escape quickly.

The stolen paintings are worth an estimated $10.5 million—Madame Colonna Romano is valued at roughly $2.3 million, and Jeune femme au puits is worth about $232,000, according to CNN.

Authorities recovered the two dropped paintings, Portrait of Madame Pichon and Coco Reading, from the museum garden.

Experts say the thieves will struggle to sell them because the artworks are well known and difficult to move through the legitimate art market.

The museum, housed in Renoir’s former home, closed while police launched a national investigation.

The theft comes nearly a year after thieves stole $100 million worth of royal jewels from the Louvre. There have been other high-profile heists in the country in the recent past, including $11 million in porcelain and $700,000 in gold.

French museums face glaring security gaps. A parliamentary report found that many lack the resources to protect their collections, and a 2024 survey found that nearly half had no video surveillance.