Inside the French police operation to rescue stolen Renoirs

Inside the French police operation to rescue stolen Renoirs One of the two works, ‘Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano’, suffered a tear - Bookmark Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in A scrap of genetic material on a discarded painting cover allowed French investigators to track down two stolen Renoirs and to uncover what they suspected were preparations for a further art heist, a prosecutor said on Monday. Nicolas Bessone, the Marseille prosecutor, said four men had been given preliminary charges over the theft from the small Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town on the French Riviera, on September 8. The charges, he said, include organized theft and criminal association. Bessone estimated the paintings' combined value at 4.2 million euros ($4.7 million). One of the two works, “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano,” suffered a tear, he said. The other, “Young Woman at the Well,” had slight damage to its frame. According to the prosecutor, the thieves used an electric saw to cut through a fence before entering the museum through the ground floor. They then cut the clips securing the frames of four paintings. An alarm sounded, and police officers arrived four minutes later — a swift response that “apparently caused the perpetrators to panic,” Bessone said. "As they fled, they were unable to take all four paintings and abandoned two of them, which were later found in a protective sleeve,” he said. The DNA found on the abandoned cover matched that of a 29-year-old already under investigation in a drug trafficking case in which police were tracking his vehicle, Bessone said. That vehicle-tracking data showed the suspect, accompanied by a 41-year-old man, went to the home of a third man shortly after the theft, the prosecutor said. Police surveillance also showed that the 29-year-old visited the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence on Oct. 3. The foundation is home to a large modern art collection. The suspect then met with a fourth man known to police from art theft and forgery cases in 2001 and 2003. Bessone said the arrests were prompted by the “very strong suspicion that another heist was imminent.” The two men suspected of carrying out the museum theft have been given preliminary charges of “theft committed by an organized gang” and “criminal association,” among other counts. They were sent to prison pending further investigation. The pair have denied wrongdoing, Bessone said. A third suspect acknowledged receiving the paintings at his home after the theft and hiding them behind a wall built beneath a staircase. Investigators recovered the Renoirs from that hiding place, Bessone said. The fourth suspect acknowledged seeing photographs of the paintings but said he did not immediately recognize them. Both of those suspects were given preliminary charges of “concealment” of stolen paintings. They were released under judicial supervision and barred from leaving France. Two additional people who had been arrested were released without charge. The Renoir Museum occupies the final home of the leading French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, who lived there until his death in 1919. It is the best-known attraction in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a Mediterranean coastal town between Cannes and Nice. The theft revived painful memories of the spectacular theft of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris last year. It also renewed calls for better security and funding at the many cultural sites across France. Christian Sainte, national director of judicial police, said on Monday that the country “is repeatedly targeted by organized criminal groups that carry out theft operations targeting valuable objects that are part of our cultural heritage” in museums, castles, places of worship, private homes and art galleries. French museums recorded 23 cases in 2025 and about 10 this year, he said.