Thieves stole Renoir paintings potentially worth more than $10 million from a museum on the French Riviera, the latest high-profile art heist in Europe that has renewed fears about the ability of institutions to keep their treasures safe. Two people were captured on surveillance cameras entering the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer and stealing four paintings, the town’s mayor, Bryan Masson, said in a statement provided to Newsweek. He told reporters at the scene that the thieves were “well-equipped” and “well-informed” and entered the museum after cutting through a fence.
The museum’s alarm system went off at 5:48 a.m., and police arrived five minutes later, Masson said. That “exceptionally swift response forced the burglars to flee in haste and helped limit the scale of the theft,” his statement read. The thieves were forced to abandon two of the paintings as they fled, he said, but two remain missing: Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well.
French newspaper Nice-Matin identified the other two paintings as Portrait of Madame Pichon and Coco Reading. The newspaper reported that the stolen paintings are worth around €9 million ($10.5 million), citing the city of Cagnes-sur-Mer. However, it was not immediately clear if that was the combined value of all four paintings or only the two that the thieves took with them.
Newsweek reached out to the mayor's office for further comment via email. Police are searching for the thieves, and the museum was closed as the investigation began on Tuesday. The museum is located in Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s last home before his death and displayed 12 of his paintings.
He also called for stronger security measures for museums across France, citing last year’s spectacular heist of crown jewels from the Louvre Museum in Paris. This demonstrates just how vulnerable local authorities with more limited resources are today.” Here, Newsweek looks at the value of items stolen in other high-profile art thefts across Europe over the past year. On October 19, 2025, thieves stole French crown jewels worth an estimated €88 million ($102 million) from the Louvre Museum in Paris.
The daring daytime heist at the world’s most-visited museum unfolded in less than eight minutes and exposed glaring security vulnerabilities. French authorities said the thieves, disguised as construction workers, rode a basket lift up the museum’s facade, forced open a window into the Apollo Gallery, smashed display cases, then left via the same window and fled with two others waiting for them on scooters. Eight objects were stolen: a sapphire diadem, necklace and single earring from a matching set linked to 19th-century French queens Marie-Amélie and Hortense; an emerald necklace and earrings from the matching set of Empress Marie-Louise, Napoleon Bonaparte’s second wife; a reliquary brooch; Empress Eugénie’s diadem; and her large corsage-bow brooch—a prized 19th-century imperial ensemble.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
