Italian police have recovered three paintings by influential French artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne that were stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March, officials said.
Officers of law enforcement agency the Carabinieri, from Italy’s cultural heritage protection unit, recovered the works after what police described as a complex investigation.
The recovered works are Renoir’s “Les Poissons” (“The Fish”), Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse” (“Odalisque on the Terrace”) and Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises” (“Cup and Plate of Cherries”).
Renoir’s “Les Poissons”
Matisse’s “Odalisque on the Terrace”
Cezanne’s ‘Cup and Plate of Cherries’
The paintings were taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, during the night of 22 to 23 March.
Art experts said their estimated value exceeded €9 million.
Police today released a video of the theft, showing two masked burglars entering via a window, grabbing the three paintings off the wall and then immediately exiting the building, in an operation that took less than three minutes.
Watch: Moment €9m worth of art stolen in heist
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