Burglary at Renoir museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer: two paintings stolen at dawn
Two Renoir paintings were stolen early Tuesday morning from the museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice. The thieves forced through a fence to make their escape.
Spectacular theft at Renoir museum: two works taken, fence cut
At 5:48 a.m. on Tuesday morning, two burglars entered the Renoir museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a town in the Alpes-Maritimes near Nice, and stole two paintings described as "priceless", according to lefigaro.fr. Two other canvases were abandoned on the premises during their flight.
The perpetrators left the scene by cutting through a section of the fence separating the museum's park from a neighbouring alley. It was through this breach, quickly marked off with red and white police tape by Cagnes-sur-Mer's municipal police, that the two men escaped with their haul.
The first signs of the crime were noticed by a local resident, who heard "car doors slamming in the alley" shortly before 6 a.m., from behind her shutters. Roughly three-quarters of an hour later, the national police woke Luc, a man in his fifties living nearby. "They told me the museum had just been burgled," he told Figaro, both bewildered and somewhat amused by the situation.
Outside his residence, two municipal police officers and their vehicle parked at the top of a steep alley bore witness to the scale of the operation put in place in the hours following the theft. Neighbourhood residents discovered the scene upon waking, stunned by the speed and audacity of the operation.
The Marseille prosecutor's office has taken over the investigation, according to information reported by nicematin.com. Two Renoir paintings were moreover found in the museum's park, apparently abandoned by the thieves during their hasty escape.
The Renoir museum, situated in the former property of painter Auguste Renoir on the heights of Cagnes-sur-Mer, houses several works and personal objects of the Impressionist master. This burglary is part of a series of painting thefts on the Côte d'Azur that is concerning authorities, according to Ouest-France.
Source: Google News LU FR