Thieves stole four paintings from the Renoir Museum on the French Riviera early on Tuesday, dropping two as they made their getaway.The two raiders broke into the museum shortly before 6am through a hole in the garden fence, Cagnes-sur-Mer mayor Bryan Masson said on his Facebook page.The thieves ⁠dropped ​two paintings by the famous Impressionist artist ⁠in the gardens as police, alerted ‌by alarms, arrived and gave chase, Mr Masson said. Earlier he had said three works had been stolen and one dropped.The two stolen paintings were Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well, the local municipality said. Both belong to Paris's famous Orsay Museum and were on loan to the Renoir Museum. The art is valued at €9 million, Mr Masson said but added: "It's Renoir's, it is priceless, you cannot sell it like that."The mayor said that “attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer. These actions are particularly serious".A police officer stands guard at the entrance of the Musee Renoir after the robbery. AFPShow caption: A police officer stands guard at the entrance of the Musee R…Luc, who lives next to the museum, told BFM TV that he was woken up very early by police arriving at the ​spot of the break-in. "It's very isolated here," he said, pointing to the quiet spot where the museum's garden fence was cut out by the thieves. "They are attacking all museums now, we must react."The museum was created in 1960 in the mansion of the Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir on a hill in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice, where he died in 1919. The collection on display in the museum includes 13 Renoir paintings, as well as about ​40 sculptures, photographs and pieces of furniture.The master's most ​valuable works have fetched millions of dollars ​at ‌auctions in the past.Art thieves in Europe are committing more ⁠violent robberies, and specialist gangs have been replaced by ad ⁠hoc opportunists recruited through social media, Europol said in a recent report.The EU’s law enforcement agency said thieves are using explosives, axes and sledgehammers, with the heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris last October a recent example. The thieves threatened guards and visitors, and stole €88 million ($102.3 million) in jewels, including Empress Eugenie's tiara.The agency traces the trend back to 2024, when four hooded criminals equipped with baseball bats and axes stormed into the Cognacq-Jay art museum in Paris. They took seven objects adorned with gold and diamonds before fleeing the scene.Explosives were used in the Netherlands in the same year, when a gang broke into the Drents Museum in Assen.