Four Renoirs Stolen in Three Minutes

Four Renoirs disappeared from the artist’s last home before six in the morning. The alarm worked. The police arrived five minutes later, which left me wondering what on earth a museum is supposed to do.

Three minutes. That’s all they said it took, and that’s the bit that caused me to pause.

At 5.48 on the morning of Tuesday 8 September, two masked men carrying metal saws broke into the Musée Renoir at Cagnes-sur-Mer, Renoir’s last home. The alarm went off. The municipal police arrived at 5.53.

Five minutes. That’s pretty impressive, I thought.

Except the thieves apparently needed only three.

In the Chambre Gangnat were twelve Renoirs on long-term loan from the Musée d’Orsay. The thieves took four of them. Two, Portrait de Madame Stephen Pichon and Coco lisant, were abandoned near the museum during their escape. The other two, Portrait de Madame Colonna Romano and La Jeune Femme au puits, went with them and, as I write this, they’re still missing.

Gosh.

Recently, when researching and writing about all those missing Pushkin books… remember the one about other heists in French museums and libraries where valuable items just seemed to walk out the door? I’m in danger of becoming that person who writes about stuffed-up heists in France. I certainly hope not.

But lazily I thought I knew where this Renoir story was going.

France seems to have had an incredibly bad run of thefts and crazy heists recently. You’re probably aware of this. Next, I found myself reading a 2024 National Assembly Inquiry into French museum security. Ha… wow. I discovered that of the 616 museums that responded, only 54% had video surveillance and only 23% had an emergency and risk prevention plan!

The Culture Ministry recently announced a €30 million security improvement program. So, there we are. French museums need better security. That message is coming through loud and clear. Except that in the case of the Musée Renoir, the alarm worked, and the police were there in 5 minutes. Authorities said the museum met the required security standards. If the lack of security wasn’t the issue here, why then am I talking about it?

Ah. Well…as I said, that was my lazy assumption. But in reality, it was rather inconvenient. I had a story in mind ;) and I shouldn’t be assuming. But something is still niggling… Meanwhile, the investigation continues.

I kept reading. I kept thinking. I kept digging.

Then I got distracted by something else entirely while pulling this story together and making it more interesting for you to read.

→Annual subscribers and Mighty Supporters, come down this rabbit hole with me. Those three letters changed the story completely.

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