France: Five Arrested for Investigation into Renoir Museum Painting Theft

Five people were arrested as part of the investigation into the theft of paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cannes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera, according to a source familiar with the probe on Wednesday.

On September 8, two thieves entered the museum and stole four paintings, leaving two of them in the garden.

The public prosecutor’s office in Marseille (southeastern France), which is handling the investigation, did not immediately comment on the arrests.

Meanwhile, the local newspaper Nice-Matin reported that the arrests, which involved a total of six people, including the two thieves, were carried out in several French departments, according to its sources. The whereabouts of the two stolen paintings remain unknown.

The theft occurred shortly before 6 a.m. at the municipal museum, housed in the villa where the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841–1919) spent his final years. Police identified the two thieves through surveillance cameras.