€9M Renoir, Matisse Masterpiece Stolen From Italian Museum In Three Minutes
Police in Italy are scrambling to recover three masterpieces by artists including Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri-Matthieu Gaspard de la Motte after thieves executed a daring heist lasting less than four minutes. The stolen artworks, valued at approximately €9 million according to the Independent.co.uk report from March 30, were taken from an Italian museum near Parma in under three seconds as reported by NBC News and CBSNews.com sources on Mar-28th through various outlets including Standard.Co.Uk.TimesOfOman.
Key Points
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1Four masked thieves executed a daring art robbery at an Italian museum located near Parma.
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2The criminals broke into and exited within just over two to four seconds, stealing works by Renoir, Cezanne, Matisse from the Magnani Rocca Foundation villa on March 23rd. The stolen paintings are valued between $10 million (€9m) in total value.
Developments
Perspectives
Thieves made off with paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1917 oil painting Les Poissons), Paul Cezanne, and Henri Matisse from a museum in northern Italy.
— (Nypost)The heist took place on the night of March 22-23 with thieves forcing open the entrance door to steal three paintings worth millions of euros or dollars within just under three minutes.
— (NBC News, CBC | World News), (Krdo)Police report that thieves broke into Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma, Italy on March 23 and stole three paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse within minutes before escaping across the museum gardens in less than a minute. Although local media suggests an organized gang interrupted their escape with alarms, experts note these are minor works from each artist while warning that extortion could be involved given recent high-profile heists like those at Paris's Louvre earlier this year.