NANTERRE, France, Oct 12 - French police accelerated the arrest of suspects in a theft of two Renoir paintings after one of the alleged thieves visited another museum, raising fears of an imminent second theft, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said on Monday.
Police arrested six suspects earlier this month and four men have since been charged. The two men suspected of carrying out the theft were charged with organised theft and other offences.
A third man, accused of hiding the paintings, was charged with organised handling of stolen goods. A fourth suspect, who investigators say was approached about buying the artworks, was charged with handling stolen goods and taking part in a criminal conspiracy.
PAINTINGS WORTH MORE THAN €4 MILLION
The stolen works, "Madame Colonna Romano" and "Young Woman at the Well" by Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were valued at about €4.2 million ($4.7 million), Bessone said.
The theft took place on September 8 at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera. According to investigators, the thieves entered the museum grounds through a hole cut in a garden fence and got inside through a window.
The paintings were later found hidden behind a false wall in a house.
Both works were damaged and will need restoration. One of the paintings, "Madame Colonna Romano", had been torn.
The recovery came almost exactly one month after the theft, following an investigation that used DNA evidence, mobile phone geolocation data and surveillance footage.
Bessone said the suspects had denied planning a second museum raid, but he added that he did "not believe the principal suspect visited that museum simply out of a love of art".
The thieves also attempted to steal two other Renoir paintings, "Madame Pichon" and "Coco Reading", which depicts Renoir's young son Claude. They abandoned those works in the museum gardens while fleeing police who had arrived at the scene. ($1 = 0.8945 euros) REUTERS