4 works of art stolen from France's Renoir Museum, mayor says

LONDON -- Two suspects broke into the Renoir Museum in France early on Tuesday, allegedly stealing four works of art, including a painting that they abandoned as they made their escape, the local mayor said.

An alarm at the museum, which is in Cagnes-sur-Mer, was triggered at 5:48 a.m., Bryan Masson, the local mayor, said in a post in French on social media. Police took five minutes to arrive at the scene, he said.

"Spotted by the city’s video surveillance cameras, the two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings as they ran," the mayor said.

Local and national police were on site, the mayor said, adding that a manhunt for the two suspects was underway.

Founded in 1960 and renovated in the 2010s, the museum in southern France celebrates the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, an impressionist painter who died in 1919.

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"Targeting the Renoir Museum means targeting a part of Cagnes-sur-Mer’s history and heritage," the mayor said. "This is a very serious incident."