In a swift turnaround after a brazen late-night heist, Italian police say they have recovered three paintings by French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne that were stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March.
Officials said officers from the Carabinieri — Italy’s law enforcement agency — tracked down the artworks through what police described as a complex investigation led by the force’s cultural heritage protection unit.
The recovered paintings are Renoir’s “Les Poissons” (“The Fish”), Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse” (“Odalisque on the Terrace”) and Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises” (“Cup and Plate of Cherries”).
Renoir’s “Les Poissons”
Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace”
Cezanne’s ‘Cup and Plate of Cherries’
The trio was stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, close to Parma, during the night of 22 to 23 March.
Art experts put their combined estimated value at more than €9 million.
Police today released video footage of the theft, showing two masked burglars climbing in through a window, snatching the three paintings from the wall and then slipping back out almost immediately — an operation that, investigators said, lasted less than three minutes.
Watch: Moment €9m worth of art stolen in heist
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