Early morning on Tuesday, in the small, coastal French town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, thieves sliced a fence. They sneaked through the garden and into the ground floor of the Renoir Museum. After that, they cut the clips securing the frames of four paintings. Alarms blared. Police made a swift arrival. The thieves attempted an escape back through the garden. They made it out with two valuable pieces. They lost two as they fled.
The heist took less than three minutes; cops arrived in five.
Police found two of the stolen works dropped in the museum’s garden: Renoir’s Portrait of Madame Pichon and Coco Reading. The two still missing are Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well.
Town Mayor Bryan Masson estimates the combined value of the stolen works at $10.5 million. But experts say that unless the thieves already have a deal set up, the paintings will be almost impossible to profit from.
The Renoir Museum is the most famous attraction in Cagnes-sur-Mer. It is housed in the final home of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He lived there before his death in 1919. The museum had 12 works by the famous Impressionist artist.
At least two of the works targeted already had a troubled history. According to the French Culture Ministry database of spoliated (or plundered) art, both Young Woman at the Well and Coco Reading were looted by Nazis during World War II. One was brought back to France in 1949 and the other in 1994.
Prosecutors speculate an organized gang executed Tuesday’s theft. The French national office for traffic in cultural goods is joining the investigation.
The theft recalls last year’s Crown Jewel heist at the Louvre in Paris. After that incident, calls for better security and funding for culture sites in France increased. Masson says this crime should serve as a warning to officials that museums still need better protection.
Today, we can rejoice that unlike these two paintings, we can never be stolen from our Creator’s home. God promises that nothing can separate us from His love, not even the thief.
I am sure that neither death nor life . . . nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord. — Romans 8:38-39
