A pair of paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir that were stolen last month from the artist’s namesake museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, were found by local officials. Six people thought to have been connected with the crime have been arrested.
Bryan Masson, the mayor of the French Riviera town that is home to the violated Musée Renoir, in a statement noted that the “two paintings are far more than works of art. They are part of our city’s history, our cultural heritage, and the legacy Auguste Renoir left to Cagnes-sur-Mer. Their recovery is a tremendous relief for the people of Cagnes-sur-Mer and for everyone who cares deeply about our museum.”
The paintings were found hidden behind a false wall in a house. Respectively titled Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano, 1910, and Jeune fille au puits, 1886, they are worth an estimated €4.2 million ($4.7 million) apiece. The two canvases are among four that were pilfered in a predawn break-in that saw the thieves slice through a fence and climb through a window before severing the works from the wall to which their frames were bolted. The burglars dropped the other two paintings—the 1895 Portrait of Madame Pichon and the 1905 Coco Lisant—in the garden of the museum while making their escape.
Regional authorities said that the entire caper was conducted within three minutes and that the thieves targeted the most valuable paintings in the museum, which occupies the French old master’s one-time residence.
Reuters reports that police accelerated their apprehension of the suspects after one visited another museum, sparking concerns that a second theft was nigh. Four of those held were charged, with the two thought to have carried out the burglary charged with organized theft, among other crimes.