Thieves broke into an Italian museum this month and made off with works by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth millions of dollars, Italian officials said Monday.
The thieves broke in through the front door of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, a private art museum in the countryside outside the northern Italian city of Parma, on the night of March 22, said the Carabinieri, the Italian police force investigating the heist. In three minutes, the group made off with three paintings, the police said.
The stolen works included “Les Poissons” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne’s “Still Life With Cherries” and Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace,” together worth about $10 million, according to the Italian news media. A fourth artwork was abandoned at the scene after the thieves were interrupted by the museum’s security system, according to the Italian news outlet La Repubblica.
“Les Poissons,” an oil painting on canvas produced by Renoir around 1917 showcasing the French painter’s late-career Impressionist style, is estimated to be worth nearly $7 million alone, Italian media reported.
According to Sky TG24, an Italian-language Sky affiliate, the museum said the heist was “part of a structured and organized operation” and seemed to have been well planned.
The Magnani-Rocca Foundation did not respond to requests for comment.
It is the latest high-profile, brazen theft to hit the art world, coming less than six months after a gang of thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris and stole some of the museum’s crown jewels in broad daylight. Experts say that such heists have surged in recent years, especially as technological advancements and cryptocurrencies have made it easier to launder such treasures.
The Magnani-Rocca Foundation is named for the parents of its chief benefactor, Luigi Magnani, an Italian intellectual who established the museum collection in the 1970s. Opened to the public in 1990, it holds a wide collection of classical and contemporary art, including works by Gentile da Fabriano, Francisco Goya and Vittore Carpaccio.
The museum had remained open after the heist, keeping the theft under wraps until a regional branch of Italy’s state broadcaster, Rai, broke the news on Sunday.
Reached on Monday, the Carabinieri’s art theft unit confirmed that it was investigating the matter, and declined to comment further.
Ali Watkins covers international news for The Times and is based in Belfast.
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