Two paintings by French Impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir remain missing after thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in southern France, stealing four works before fleeing as police closed in.
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The thieves entered the museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer early Tuesday after cutting through a fence surrounding its gardens. They then cut through the structures securing the paintings before triggering the alarm at 05:48 local time.
Police arrived within five minutes, forcing the suspects to abandon two of the four paintings in the museum grounds as they escaped, according to Mayor Bryan Masson.
The two missing works are Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano, painted in 1910, and Jeune fille au puits, from 1886. Each of the four stolen paintings has been valued at about €9 million ($10.4 million).
