{"id":800607,"date":"2026-10-12T22:10:09","date_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:10:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800607\/"},"modified":"2026-10-12T22:10:09","modified_gmt":"2026-10-12T22:10:09","slug":"stolen-renoir-paintings-found-behind-wall-in-france-following-arrests-arts-and-culture-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/800607\/","title":{"rendered":"Stolen Renoir paintings found behind wall in France following arrests | Arts and Culture News"},"content":{"rendered":"

Renoir art heist suspects were planning \u2018imminent\u2019 second robbery, prosecutors say.<\/p>\n

Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026<\/p>\n

Two paintings by the impressionist master Renoir which were stolen from a French museum last month have been found damaged behind a false wall in a private home after police made several arrests ahead of what prosecutors say was an imminent second heist.<\/p>\n

Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said six suspects were arrested on Wednesday after authorities discovered they were planning to target the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, home to one of Europe\u2019s largest collections of modern art.<\/p>\n

Bessone said the arrests were prompted by the \u201cvery strong suspicion that another heist was imminent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe were very clearly looking at the repetition of a criminal scheme\u201d, said Eric Antonetti, the head of the Alpes-Maritimes judicial police.<\/p>\n

On September 8, thieves used an electric saw to cut through a fence to enter the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, according to investigators.<\/p>\n

An alarm sounded and police officers arrived four minutes later, a swift response that \u201capparently caused the perpetrators to panic,\u201d Bessone said.<\/p>\n

The stolen works, \u201cMadame Colonna Romano\u201d and \u201cYoung Woman at the Well\u201d by impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were valued at about 4.2m euros ($4.7m), Bessone said.<\/p>\n

The thieves also attempted to steal two other Renoir paintings, \u201cMadame Pichon\u201d and \u201cCoco Reading\u201d, which depicts Renoir\u2019s young \u200cson \u200cClaude. They abandoned them in the museum gardens while fleeing police.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs they fled, they were unable to take all four paintings and abandoned two of them, which were later found in a protective sleeve,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\"(FromPolice chiefs speak to reporters in Nanterre on Monday following recovery of the stolen paintings last week [Thomas Samson\/AFP]Damaged and torn<\/p>\n

The paintings were found hidden<\/a> behind a false wall in a house on Friday. Both works were damaged and will need \u2060restoration. One of the paintings, \u201cMadame Colonna Romano\u201d, had been torn.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese two paintings are not simply works of art. They are part of our city\u2019s history,\u201d Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice, said on Friday. \u201cKnowing they have been recovered is an immense relief.\u201d<\/p>\n

The recovery came almost exactly one month \u2060after the theft, following an investigation that used \u2060DNA evidence, mobile phone geolocation data and surveillance video.<\/p>\n

The two key suspects include a 29-year-old, who was charged after investigators recovered DNA from a bag left behind during the getaway.<\/p>\n

They \u2060were charged with organised theft and other offences. A third man, accused of hiding the paintings, was charged with organised handling of stolen goods.<\/p>\n

A fourth suspect, who investigators say was approached about buying the artworks, was charged \u200cwith handling stolen goods and taking part in a criminal conspiracy.<\/p>\n

Bessone said the suspects had denied planning a second museum raid, but he added that he did \u201cnot believe the principal suspect visited that \u200cmuseum simply out of a love of art\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Renoir art heist suspects were planning \u2018imminent\u2019 second robbery, prosecutors say. Published On 12 Oct 202612 Oct 2026…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":800608,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[6225,2790,6485,6486,1120,96,591,819,50,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-800607","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-culture","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-europe","tag-france","tag-news","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800607","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=800607"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/800607\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/800608"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=800607"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=800607"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=800607"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}