The two paintings by Auguste Renoir stolen on September 8 from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes) have been found. Their recovery was announced on Friday October 9 by the mayor of the town, Bryan Masson, after a series of arrests carried out by investigators. The works, Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Young woman at the well (1886), belong to the Musée d’Orsay, which had deposited them in this municipal establishment located at the Domaine des Collettes, the painter’s last residence.
The two paintings were found at the home of a person, suspected of complicity or receiving stolen property, according to statements to theAFP from the lawyer of one of the alleged burglars. They are in good condition, according to TF1. In total, six people were arrested in four departments, Alpes-Maritimes, Var, Hérault and Doubs, during an operation carried out by the Nice judicial police and the Central Office for the Fight against Trafficking in Cultural Property (OCBC).
A 29-year-old man, considered one of the main suspects, was indicted on Saturday October 10 for organized gang theft and criminal association, said his lawyer, Me Jean-Denis Flori. According to the latter, his client was identified thanks to DNA traces found on a cover containing two other paintings abandoned in the museum garden. A second suspected burglar and a person suspected of complicity or receiving stolen property were also presented to an investigating judge.
The theft was committed on September 8, shortly before 6 a.m. Two hooded individuals had cut the fence surrounding the museum garden before entering the building by breaking a window. They had cut the fasteners of four paintings. The operation lasted less than three minutes. Alerted by the activation of the security system, the thieves fled, abandoning two other Renoirs in the garden, Portrait of Madame Stephen Pichon And Coco reading.
The public prosecutor of Marseille and the national director of the judicial police must hold a press conference this Monday, October 12 in order to present the results of the investigation and the circumstances of the recovery of the two paintings.
The Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer.
