Thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, early Tuesday morning. They cut a hole in a garden fence and entered the museum through the ground floor, cutting clips securing the artwork frames to steal four paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Two of the stolen works were found in the museum garden, but the other two are still missing: "Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano" and "Young Woman at the Well". The thieves abandoned one painting as they fled from police, who arrived five minutes after the alarm sounded at 5:48 a.m. local time. According to Mayor Bryan Masson, "attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer." The stolen paintings are valued at millions of euros and are considered priceless, making them difficult to sell on the black market.
