Three paintings by French artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy in a brazen overnight heist, police disclosed on Monday, March 30th
The works, taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca near Parma, are collectively valued at approximately €9 million.
The nighttime theft occurred between March 22nd and 23rd. Four hooded intruders broke through a first-floor entrance and seized Renoir’s Les Poissons (1917), Cézanne’s Tasse et Plat de Cerises (1890), and Matisse’s Odalisque sur la Terrasse (1922). Authorities report that the robbery took under three minutes to complete. Surveillance footage shows the thieves leaving the museum grounds through its gardens as alarms sounded.
Museum officials had initially kept the theft secret, hoping to catch the culprits if they attempted to return. No arrests have been made, and the museum remains open during normal hours. A lawyer for the foundation described the crime as “structured and organized,” suggesting the thieves may have been inspired by previous art heists, not least the Louvre burglary in Paris last October.
The Magnani Rocca Foundation houses a private collection assembled by the late Luigi Magnani, who opened his estate to the public in 1990. The collection includes works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Peter Paul Rubens, Claude Monet, Albrecht Dürer, Antonio Canova, and Giorgio Morandi.
Italy’s elite Carabinieri art squad, which tracks approximately 100,000 stolen artifacts annually, is leading the investigation.
