Millions gone in 3 minutes - Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse paintings stolen from Italian museum

Three paintings by famous French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse were gone in less than three minutes after four masked men broke into a private museum in northern Italy and made off with the artwork, police said on Monday, March 30.

The paintings, reportedly worth an estimated $10 million (approximately ₹94.68 crore), were kept at the Fondazione Magnani Rocca, on the outskirts of the city of Parma. The incident was reported on the night of March 22-23, the police said in a statement.

They took Paul Cezanne's "Tasse et Plat de Cerises" (Cup and plate of cherries), Pierre-Auguste Renoir's "Les Poissons" (The fish) and Henri Matisse's "Odalisque sur la Terrasse" (Odalisque on the terrace).

An Italian public broadcaster mentioned in a report that the stolen artwork were worth 9 million euros ($10.34 million). The stolen figure has not been confirmed by the Carabinieri – a military branch of Italy.

The museum, home to a private collection compiled by the late music critic and musicologist Luigi Magnani, told broadcaster SkyTG24 that the whole theft took less than three minutes and was structured and organised.

They had not been able to go any further thanks to the surveillance system and rapid intervention of police and security officers, the museum added.

A police spokesperson said that the police are looking at museum’s video surveillance footage and that of neighbouring businesses to catch the culprits involved in the crime.

The Fondazione Magnani Rocca's collection also includes works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi, according to its website.

The crime in Parma comes after a series of high-profile heists at major European museums, including a major incident in October where thieves stole jewels and other items worth 88 million euros ($101 million) from the Louvre in Paris.

Laurence des Cars quit after a punishing year for the former royal palace — the high-profile jewels heist from the Apollo Gallery, a mid-February burst pipe near the “Mona Lisa,” water leaks damaging priceless books, staff walkouts and a wildcat strike over overcrowding and understaffing.

President Emmanuel Macron accepted Laurence des Cars’ resignation as “an act of responsibility” at a moment when the Louvre needs “calm”, a statement read.

In the October theft incident, the thieves had taken a total of eight minutes to steal jewels worth $102 million or ₹9.65 billion from the Louvre. Several people were arrested later, but the stolen jewels have remained missing.

(With inputs from agencies)