Overview
- Four Renoir canvases were cut from their mounts in a pre-dawn break-in at the small Musée Renoir on the French Riviera on September 8, and two were abandoned in the garden when an alarm forced the thieves to flee.
- Investigators used DNA from a protective cover left at the scene, vehicle-tracking, mobile geolocation and surveillance footage to identify suspects and trace the missing works.
- Police recovered the two outstanding paintings, Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well, hidden behind a solid cinderblock false wall in a house in Clermont-l'Hérault.
- Prosecutors say six people were arrested and four men have been charged, including a 29-year-old principal suspect linked by DNA, on counts such as organised theft, handling stolen goods and criminal conspiracy.
- Both recovered canvases show damage—a tear to the Madame Colonna Romano portrait and slight frame damage to Young Woman at the Well—and will require restoration, while authorities continue a probe into a suspected organised network and regional museum security gaps.