Thieves stole three paintings from the Renoir Museum on the French Riviera early Tuesday after breaking into the museum shortly before 6 a.m., local authorities said.
Cagnes sur Mer Mayor Bryan Masson said on Facebook that police spotted the thieves and gave chase. During the pursuit, the suspects dropped one of the four paintings they had taken but escaped with the other three.
“Attacking the Renoir museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” Masson said, describing the robbery as particularly serious.
The museum was established in 1960 in the former home of impressionist painter Pierre Auguste Renoir in Cagnes sur Mer, near Nice. Renoir lived there during the final years of his life and died in 1919.
The museum’s collection includes 13 paintings by Renoir, along with about 40 sculptures, pieces of furniture and photographs. Masson did not identify the stolen paintings or say whether they were works by Renoir.
Renoir’s most valuable paintings have sold for tens of millions of dollars at auction, making his works potential targets for organised art theft.
The robbery comes amid growing concerns over museum security in Europe. Europol said last month that art thefts have become increasingly violent, with criminal networks also using social media to recruit opportunistic thieves.
Europol cited last year’s Louvre Museum heist in Paris, in which thieves stole jewellery worth about €88 million, as an example of the changing nature of museum robberies.
Police investigations into the Renoir Museum robbery are continuing.
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