Renoir Museum Heist: Three Paintings Stolen as Thieves Escape With €9 Million in Art

Image Credit: Musée Renoir Cagnes-sur-Mer Museums

Three paintings by French Impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been stolen from the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera after two thieves broke into the museum before dawn on Tuesday. A fourth artwork was taken but abandoned during the getaway, with the stolen works estimated by the mayor’s office to be worth around €9 million.

The museum’s alarm was triggered at 5:48am local time, and municipal police arrived about five minutes later. Surveillance footage captured two suspects fleeing the site, but they managed to escape and remained at large as the investigation continued. French investigators have opened a burglary investigation, while an inventory of the museum’s collection is being carried out.

The exact identities of the three stolen paintings have not been officially confirmed by the mayor’s office. However, the museum’s own collection records show that works including Coco lisant from 1905, Jeune femme au puits from around 1886, Portrait de Madame Colonna Romano from around 1910 and Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon from 1895 are part of its collection. French media have identified these works as possible paintings involved in the theft, but investigators have yet to publicly confirm which painting was abandoned.

The Musée Renoir is particularly significant because it occupies Renoir’s former home at the Domaine des Collettes. Renoir moved to the property in Cagnes-sur-Mer in 1908 and spent the final 12 years of his life there before his death in 1919. The museum, opened in 1960, preserves his former living and working environment and holds original paintings, sculptures, furniture and personal objects connected to the artist.

The break-in comes at a sensitive time for France’s museums, less than a year after a spectacular robbery at the Louvre in Paris. In October 2025, thieves used a crane to break into the museum during daylight hours and stole eight pieces of French crown jewellery valued at about €88 million. The robbery prompted intense criticism of security at one of the world’s most visited museums and led to a wider review of security arrangements at French cultural institutions.

The two cases are different in scale and method, but the latest theft is likely to renew concerns about the vulnerability of cultural institutions and the protection of irreplaceable works. Europol has also warned that art theft in Europe is evolving, with traditional specialist networks increasingly being replaced by smaller, opportunistic groups recruited through social media.

For Cagnes-sur-Mer, the loss is more than a financial one. The Renoir Museum is closely tied to the identity of the town and to the final chapter of one of France’s most celebrated artists. With the suspects still at large and the stolen paintings yet to be recovered, investigators now face the challenge of locating the works before they disappear into the international black market for stolen art.