Thieves Broke Into a French Museum and Made Off With Renoir Paintings Worth More Than $2.5 Million

Early today, burglars stole four artworks from the Renoir Museum, in the French Riviera, only to drop two of them as they escaped

Sonja Anderson | Daily Correspondent

September 8, 2026 3:21 p.m.

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In France’s latest art heist, two thieves broke into Pierre-Auguste Renoir’s house and stole four of his paintings. The burglars entered Cagnes-sur-Mer’s Renoir Museum, housed in the estate where the famed Impressionist spent the last decade of his life, before sunrise this morning.

“They were equipped with an electric knife or a metal saw—whatever you prefer to call it—and they cut through the bolts holding the frames of Renoir’s works in place,” Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, told reporters, per ABC News’ Kevin Shalvey. ‎“The police intervention and the museum’s alarms caused the robbers to rush and steal only 4 of the 12 works from the Renoir Museum.”

The four stolen works were Portrait of Madame Stephen Pichon (1895), Coco Reading (1905), Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Young Woman at the Well (1886). According to a statement from Cagnes-sur-Mer, a French Riviera town just west of Nice, the burglars abandoned the first two paintings in the museum’s gardens while running from authorities. The latter pair remain at large.

The missing art was on loan to the Renoir Museum and belongs to the Musée d’Orsay, in Paris. Caroline d’Amat, Cagnes-sur-Mer’s deputy mayor, tells CNN’s Jack Guy and Saskya Vandoorne that Madame Colonna Romano is worth more than $2.3 million, while Young Woman is worth about $230,000.

Before the two abandoned paintings were recovered, the mayor’s office had valued the thieves’ haul at some $10 million, reports Agence France-Presse. Authorities attribute the robbers’ bungle to the museum’s security system and the quick response of local police.

“The museum alarm went off at 5:48 a.m.,” Masson told reporters, per AFP. “At 5:53 a.m., just five minutes later, our municipal police were on the scene.”

Renoir, born in France in 1841, was one of Impressionism’s founding artists. Known for soft-focus portraits of women and girls, like Coco Reading and A Girl With a Watering Can (1876), the artist left Paris for the warmer climate of southern France at the advice of doctors treating his rheumatoid arthritis. In 1907, he and his wife, Aline, purchased and developed a hilltop estate in Cagnes-sur-Mer dotted with olive, orange and fig trees. Though his mobility was restricted, Renoir painted there until his death, in 1919.

In 1960, Renoir’s son Claude sold the estate to the village of Cagnes, which turned it into a museum. Today, the museum displays original furniture and objects that belonged to the Impressionist, including his easel and wheelchair. Its collection comprises photographs and letters, 13 original paintings, and about 40 sculptures.

“Attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-Mer,” Masson told reporters, per BBC News’ Michael Sheils McNamee and Tiffany Wertheimer.

The Renoir Museum burglary joins a growing roster of recent art thefts in Europe. In last year’s infamous Louvre heist, scootering criminals fled with French crown jewels. This spring, thieves stole $10 million worth of paintings by Renoir, Henri Matisse and Paul Cézanne from an Italian museum. And earlier this summer, jewelry and artwork valued at $5 million was taken from France’s Lalique Museum.

Masson told reporters that the French government should help local museums protect art from “increasingly organized and determined criminals,” per BBC News. “Beyond Cagnes-sur-Mer, this incident should serve as a warning about the protection of our museums, which now face a new form of organized crime targeting works of art.”

Sonja Anderson is a daily correspondent for Smithsonian magazine who covers art, archaeology and culture, from newly discovered artifacts to the latest art heists.