Thieves steal paintings from Renoir Museum on French Riviera

Thieves have stolen two valuable paintings by the French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir from the Renoir Museum in the South of France, the town's mayor has said.

Two raiders ‌broke into the museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer through a hole they made in a ⁠fence a little before 6am on Tuesday, taking four paintings in all.

The thieves dropped two of the paintings in the museum's garden as they were chased by police, but escaped with Portrait Of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman At the Well, local officials said.

Cagnes-sur-Mer ​mayor Bryan Masson said the raid began at 5.48am when the museum's alarm went off, and police were on the scene five minutes later.

He told local broadcaster Ici Azur and other media the gang was "well-equipped" and "well-informed", using an electric knife or saw to cut the fence and enter the museum via the ground floor before cutting the clips securing the artwork frames.

The thieves were seen on CCTV entering the museum and taking four paintings, but the swift arrival of the police forced them "to flee in haste and helped limit the scale of the theft," he added.

French regional newspaper Nice-Matin named the other stolen paintings as Portrait Of Madame Pichon (1895) and Coco Reading (1905), valuing the four artworks together at $10.5m (£7.7m), but these details have not been confirmed.

Renoir's most valuable works ​have sold for millions at ​auctions in the past.

All of the paintings are by the French painter and are visible on the museum's website.

Mr Masson said ‌attacking ⁠the museum "is attacking ⁠a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer. These actions are particularly serious".

Police are investigating the theft.

'Difficult to sell'

Christopher Marinello, chief executive at Art Recovery International, told Sky News the stolen paintings will be "very difficult to sell", predicting the thieves will look for buyers in Eastern Europe or Russia "where people tend to buy stolen items without doing proper due diligence".

He said it's "very unlikely that these were stolen to order" and the proximity of the Mediterranean Sea "could be very problematic" for investigators.

Leading Impressionist artist

Renoir was one of the leading painters of the Impressionist group. La Loge (1874), La Parisienne (1874) and Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette (1876) are among his best-known pieces, ImpressionistArts website said.

The Renoir Museum, which was closed on Tuesday after the raid, was set up in 1960 in Renoir's home in the town, near Nice on the French Riviera, where he died in 1919.

The collection on display includes 13 of his works and some 40 sculptures, pieces of furniture and photographs.

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Violent thefts increasing

Art thieves in Europe are committing ​more violent robberies and specialist gangs have been replaced ⁠by ad hoc opportunists recruited through social media, pan-European police body Europol said last month.

A prime example of this new trend was last October's break-in at the Louvre Museum in Paris, the agency said.

Thieves threatened guards ​and visitors and stole €88 million (£76m) worth of jewels, such as Empress Eugenie's tiara.

Last month, four Renaissance paintings by 15th-century painter Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily during the country's summer national holiday.

(c) Sky News 2026: Thieves steal paintings from Renoir Museum on French Riviera