RismadarVoice Reporters
September 8, 2026
Thieves broke into the Renoir Museum on the French Riviera early Tuesday and escaped with three paintings after police interrupted the operation, local authorities said.
The incident occurred shortly before 6 a.m. at the museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, near Nice, according to the town’s mayor, Bryan Masson.
Mr Masson said the thieves initially took four paintings but dropped one while fleeing after police spotted them and gave chase.
“Attacking the Renoir museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” the mayor said, describing the incident as particularly serious.
The stolen artworks have not been identified, and authorities have not disclosed their estimated value.
The Renoir Museum was established in 1960 at the former home of French Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where he spent part of his later life and died in 1919.
The museum’s collection includes 13 paintings attributed to Renoir, alongside about 40 sculptures, pieces of furniture and photographs.
Renoir is regarded as one of the leading figures of the Impressionist movement, and some of his works have sold for tens of millions of dollars at auction.
The robbery comes amid concerns over changing patterns in art crime across Europe.
Europol, the European Union’s law enforcement agency, said last month that art thefts were becoming increasingly violent, with traditional specialist criminal networks increasingly giving way to opportunistic groups recruited through social media.
The agency cited the October 2025 theft at the Louvre Museum in Paris as a major example. During that incident, thieves reportedly threatened guards and visitors before escaping with jewellery valued at about €88 million ($102.3 million), including Empress Eugénie’s tiara.
Authorities in France are expected to investigate the Renoir Museum burglary and work to recover the stolen paintings.
