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Arrests in France as stolen Renoir paintings found

By AAP Newswire

Oct 9, 2026

Entrance of the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France — Thieves broke into the Renoir Museum and stole four Renoir paintings but abandoned two as they fled. -AP

Two Renoir paintings stolen from a museum in southern France have been found and six people have been arrested.

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The mayor of the town housing the Renoir Museum, Bryan Masson, praised investigators who tracked down the paintings and suspects.

His statement on Friday did not elaborate on how they did so.

The regional prosecutor's office and police did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The mayor announced a news conference for later on Friday.

The two missing paintings were Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well.

The thieves sliced through a fence, climbed through a window and initially stole four valuable Renoir paintings in the heist in September, but abandoned two of the artworks as they fled, authorities said.

Investigators launched a national search for the perpetrators.

The whole operation took less than three minutes an d targeted the most valuable works in the Renoir Museum in the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, the regional prosecutor's office said.

The theft conjured painful memories of the spectacular heist of crown jewels at the Louvre Museum in Paris in 2025 and revived calls for better security and better funding for the many cultural sites large and small that dot France's landscape.