Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Sep 8

French Police Hunt 2 Thieves After Renoir Museum Loses 2 Paintings in $10.5 Million Heist

Updated

Updated · CBS New York · Sep 8

French Police Hunt 2 Thieves After Renoir Museum Loses 2 Paintings in $10.5 Million Heist

Q: How did thieves outrun a rapid five-minute police response to vanish with priceless Renoir masterpieces?

They appear to have succeeded through speed, timing and familiarity with the site, not by defeating a large police dragnet. Authorities say the alarm sounded at 5:48 a.m. and municipal police arrived about five minutes later, but by then the two suspects had already entered, removed the paintings and fled. Surveillance footage and local reporting indicate the thieves were in and out shortly before 6 a.m., a pattern common in recent European museum burglaries: small teams, faces covered, moving fast enough to beat even a prompt response. Some reports say they cut the canvases from their frames to make them easier to carry. Police spotted them on town cameras and gave chase, but the pair still escaped, dropping at least one painting during the getaway; later reporting from the mayor suggested two may have been abandoned in the gardens, leaving either two or three still missing depending on the final count confirmed by investigators. The setting may also have helped them. The Renoir Museum is Renoir’s former hilltop home, surrounded by gardens and olive trees, offering multiple escape paths in the first minutes after the break-in. A five-minute response is fast, but in art thefts that can still be too late if the burglars have planned entry and exit routes in advance. What remains unclear is exactly how they left the area, whether a vehicle or accomplice was waiting, and whether they had scoped out the museum beforehand. Those details are now central to the French investigation.

3 articles · Updated · CBS New York · Sep 8

Two Renoir paintings were still missing Tuesday after thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer at 5:48 a.m., with police arriving about five minutes later.
Surveillance footage showed two suspects taking four works, but two were later found in the museum garden after the pair fled, narrowing the loss from earlier reports.
Nice-Matin said the paintings initially taken included Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano, Coco Lisant and Young Girl at the Well, with the group valued at about $10.5 million.
Mayor Bryan Masson said municipal and national police were deployed and called the theft an attack on local heritage, using it to press for a broader museum security plan.
The heist comes nearly a year after French crown jewels were stolen from the Louvre in October 2025, underscoring pressure on French museums to tighten protection.