Renoir's study at the house-museum in Cagnes-sur-mer. Photograph: DEA/G Nimatallah/De Agostini/Getty ImagesView image in fullscreenRenoir's study at the house-museum in Cagnes-sur-mer. Photograph: DEA/G Nimatallah/De Agostini/Getty ImagesArtworks stolen from Renoir museum on French Riviera in latest art heistThieves took four artworks but dropped one as they fled, says mayor of southern town of Cagnes-sur-Mer
Two thieves have broken into a museum dedicated to the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, stealing four artworks and dropping one as they fled, the local mayor has said.
“Spotted thanks to the town’s video surveillance cameras, the two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings as they ran,” said Bryan Masson, the mayor of the southern town of Cagnes-sur-Mer. His office estimated the value of the stolen works at €9m (£7.7m).
Masson said the thieves broke into the museum a little before 6am. Police spotted and chased them but they escaped, he added.
Art thieves in Europe are committing more violent robberies and specialist gangs have been replaced by ad-hoc opportunists recruited through social media, Europol said last month.
The heist at the Louvre museum in Paris in October last year was a prime example of this, Europol said. In that instance, the thieves threatened guards and visitors and stole €88m worth of jewels such as Empress Eugenie’s tiara.
