Police recover two stolen Renoir paintings behind wall in France

Two Renoir paintings stolen from a museum in southern France have been recovered from behind a cinder block wall in a private home, prosecutors said. Both works were damaged and will need restoration.

The paintings, “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well,” disappeared in September from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer. Police arrested six people on Wednesday, and investigators found the paintings during a search of a home in Clermont-l’Herault on Thursday, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said. Authorities announced the recovery on Friday.

“The paintings were hidden behind a solid cinder block wall. They were completely undetectable,” Bessone said, according to CBS News. He said investigators persuaded a man who had received the stolen works to admit he had them.

The paintings were “in relatively good condition,” Bessone said, but the frame of “Young Woman at the Well” was slightly damaged, and the canvas of “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” had a tear on the dress depicted in the portrait. Both works will require restoration.

The thieves also tried to take two other Renoir paintings but abandoned them while fleeing the museum. According to Al Jazeera, they were “Madame Pichon” and “Coco Reading,” a depiction of Renoir’s young son Claude. Investigators said the thieves cut through a fence with an electric saw on September 8. An alarm sounded, and officers arrived four minutes later, a response that Bessone said “apparently caused the perpetrators to panic.” The two abandoned works were later found in a protective sleeve, Al Jazeera reported.

Bessone valued the two recovered paintings at about 4.2 million euros ($4.7 million), according to Al Jazeera. CBS News reported that the estimated value of all four paintings targeted in the theft was $10 million.

Al Jazeera reported that the arrests came after investigators developed a “very strong suspicion that another heist was imminent” at the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. The suspects denied planning another museum raid, Bessone said. “We were very clearly looking at the repetition of a criminal scheme,” Eric Antonetti, head of the Alpes-Maritimes judicial police, told Al Jazeera.

A 29-year-old suspect was charged after DNA evidence linked him to the theft. Al Jazeera reported that investigators also used mobile phone location data and surveillance video, and that DNA was recovered from a bag left behind during the getaway. Two key suspects were charged with organised theft and other offences, while two other men faced charges related to handling stolen goods, the outlet reported.

“These two paintings are not simply works of art. They are part of our city’s history,” Cagnes-sur-Mer Mayor Bryan Masson said. “Knowing they have been recovered is an immense relief.”