In Italy, Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse Paintings Were Stolen From a Private Museum in Three Minutes

In Italy, works by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse worth several million euros were stolen from the private museum of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation near Parma.

According to the investigation, on March 22 four masked individuals entered the museum building on the villa grounds and made their way to a hall on the first floor. From there they took Renoir’s painting “Fish”, Cezanne’s “Still Life With Cherries”, and Matisse’s watercolor “Odalisque on a Terrace”. Italian media report that the entire operation lasted about three minutes. After the alarm was triggered, the intruders left the villa, climbed over the fence and disappeared.

The Magnani-Rocca Foundation said the perpetrators had acted “in a planned and organized manner”, adding that without the alarm they could have stolen more works.

The combined value of the stolen works is estimated at no less than 9 million euros—with Renoir’s painting “Fish” alone worth at least 6 million euros, according to BBC News. That makes the theft one of the biggest museum robberies in Italy in recent years.