Two stolen Renoir paintings are back. Here is how a small French museum lost them

Four Renoirs were cut from the wall with an electric saw in about five minutes at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, on the French Riviera, in the early hours of 8 September. Thieves broke in and ran.

Now the town hall says two of the stolen works are back. It also says six suspects have been arrested.

The BBC reports that the two recovered paintings are Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Jeune fille au puits, or Young Woman at the Well (1886). The mayor, Bryan Masson, said the news brought "immense relief" to the town.

How do thieves rob a museum in five minutes?

They plan it, say the authorities.

Al Jazeera reports that two thieves arrived a little before 6am. They cut through a fence and smashed a window. Then they used an electric saw to cut the clips that held the frames to the wall.

The alarm went off at 5:48am. Municipal police arrived about five minutes later. By then, the thieves were running.

The mayor called them "well equipped" and "well informed". Police said they were not first-time offenders and had checked out the building before.

How much were the paintings worth?

The four paintings were valued at about 9 million euros, or 10.5 million dollars, says Al Jazeera.

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The table shows what happened to each one.

So all four paintings are now accounted for. Two never left the grounds. The other two spent about a month in the hands of criminals.

Photo: Pierre-Auguste Renoir / Wikimedia Commons, Public domain

Why is this museum so special?

It was Renoir's last home. The painter lived here in his final years and died here in 1919. The museum opened in 1960.

The BBC says it holds 12 of his works. It also holds things that belonged to him, such as his easel, his wheelchair, photographs and personal letters.

It is a small town museum, not a national giant. That is part of what worries people.

Where were the missing paintings found?

Nobody has said.

The town hall first said it would give more details on Friday 9 October. Then it cancelled the press conference, says the BBC. The mayor has not said where the paintings were found or what condition they are in.

The prosecutor in Marseille has opened an investigation into an organised gang. France's national office for trafficking in cultural goods has joined it. Six people were arrested.

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That leaves a long list of unanswered questions. Who were the six? How did the police find the paintings? Did the thieves have a buyer? Is anyone still free?

Photo: Olivier Cleynen / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0

What happened between the theft and the news?

That is about a month from a smashed window to a recovery. In a case this big, a month is quick. The Louvre jewels, taken in October 2025, still have not been found, according to Al Jazeera.

Is this part of a wave of art heists?

It looks that way. Here is how the biggest recent ones compare.

The Louvre theft happened in daylight. The thieves dressed as builders and went into the Apollo Gallery during opening hours, says the BBC. They used an angle grinder on the display cases.

Photo: Wilfredor / Wikimedia Commons, CC0

The Louvre was later criticised for spending too little on security, the BBC adds.

Wine, art and jewels have all been in the heist news this month. We looked at the 30,000 bottles of Italian wine that vanished in the same week. France has also been busy on the streets, with student protests at the Bastille.

What did the mayor say?

Mr Masson said the paintings are "far more than works of art" and "part of our city's history", as the BBC quotes him.

After the break-in, he said the theft should be a warning about how museums are protected, according to Al Jazeera.

What is still missing from this story?

Plenty. The thieves, for one. We know six people were arrested, but not who they are or whether they were the two who broke in that morning.

We also do not know where the two paintings spent a month. They were stolen on 8 September and announced as recovered on 9 October. Paintings this famous are hard to sell, so where do they go?

A saw, a smashed window and five minutes did all this. Where the paintings were hiding is the one detail the mayor has not told us yet.