Gabcesz11/Shutterstock
Despite what Hollywood movies and some police departments would have you believe, deadly car chases are far from the only way to thwart multi-million-dollar heists. French investigators used DNA evidence and vehicle tracking to recover two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, valued at $4.7 million, that were stolen in a brazen burglary in the South of France in September. Authorities also arrested six people allegedly tied to the heist. One suspected thief led police to his co-conspirators by simply driving to their homes.
As if ripped from the silver screen, our scene opens in the picturesque Nice suburb of Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. The town hosts the Musée Renoir, a small gallery on the famed impressionist's hilltop farmhouse estate. On the morning of September 8, two thieves gained entry by cutting through the museum fence with an electric saw. According to Smithsonian Magazine, the duo then used the saw to slice off the bolts holding four paintings in place. All four works were on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
The police responded in under five minutes after being alerted by the museum's alarm system. This is when the planned heist went off the rails as the thieves dropped two of the paintings in the museum garden as they rushed to evade police. In the end, they made off with "Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano" and "Young Woman at the Well." If this were a movie, this is where the screenplay would move to a high-speed pursuit.
Thief was already being tracked by police
Sjo/Getty Images
No lights and sirens chased a fleeing vehicle through the mountainside. The thieves cleverly escaped in a stolen vehicle, but then abandoned it for another vehicle tied to a 29-year-old man. Investigators found the same man's DNA at the scene on one of the dropped paintings' protective sleeves. Police were already tracking the 29-year-old's vehicle in connection with alleged drug trafficking, which led to a previous arrest in 2020.
If you commit a serious crime in the age of automated license plate readers, the last thing you should do is drive to the homes of your co-conspirators, so what this alleged art thief did with this 41-year-old partner. The two visited a fence and a known art criminal. The police only rushed to arrest everyone after the 29-year-old visited the Fondation Maeght, a modern art museum just five miles away from the Musée Renoir. Officials claimed that another heist was being planned.
Police found the two stolen paintings behind a false wall in a house, Reuters reports. The thieves damaged both works during the heist. The frame of "Young Woman at the Well" was damaged and "Portrait of Madame Colonna" was torn. Overall, these arrests show that law enforcement doesn't need to task a private company with aimlessly tracking every vehicle on the road to stop crime. Needing a warrant won't let someone get away with stealing priceless pieces of culture. It will stop police officers from creepily stalking innocent people from their personal lives.