Three paintings by famous French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse were gone in less than three minutes after four masked men broke into a private museum in northern Italy and fled with the artworks, police said on Monday.
Paintings with an estimated value of $10 million (approx ₹94.68 crore), were held at Fondazione Magnani Rocca, on the outskirts of Parma. The incident was reported on the night of March 22-23, police said in a statement.
Millions gone in 3 minutes – How it happened
According to police, the four thieves broke into the building’s main entrance and a room on the first floor before fleeing through the museum gardens.
They took Paul Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises” (Cup and Plate of Cherries), Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Les Poissons” (The Fish) and Henri Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse” (Odalisque on the Terrace).
Handout image of the painting “Odalisque on the Terrace” by Henri Matisse(via REUTERS)Handout image of Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s “Fish,” one of three artworks stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation(via REUTERS)
Italian public television said in a report that the stolen artworks were worth 9 million euros ($10.34 million). The stolen figure has not been confirmed by the Carabinieri – Italy’s military branch.
The museum, which houses a private collection assembled by the late music critic and musicologist Luigi Magnani, told SkyTG24 television that the entire theft took less than three minutes and was structured and organized.
They were unable to go any further thanks to the surveillance system and the quick intervention of police and security personnel, the museum added.
A police spokesman said police were reviewing video footage from the museum and neighboring businesses to catch the culprits involved in the crime.
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The Fondazione Magnani Rocca collection also includes works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi, according to its website.
The Parma crime follows a series of high-profile robberies at major European museums, including a major incident in October when thieves stole 88 million euros ($101 million) worth of jewelry and other items from Paris’s Louvre.
The Louvre in the Louvre Museum
Months after the theft of France’s crown jewels from the Louvre museum, its director resigned in February as scrutiny widened over security failures and suspected ticket fraud.
Laurence des Cars ended after a punishing year for the former royal palace – the heist of high-profile jewels from the Apollo Gallery, a burst pipe in mid-February near the “Mona Lisa”, water damaging valuable books, staff walkouts and a wildfire strike over overcrowding and understaffing.
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President Emmanuel Macron accepted the resignation of Laurence des Cars as an “act of responsibility” at a time when the Louvre needs “calm”, the statement said.
In the October theft, it took the thieves a total of eight minutes to steal jewelry worth $102 million or ₹9.65 billion from the Louvre. Several people were later arrested, but the stolen jewelry remained unaccounted for.
(With input from agencies)
