4 works of art stolen from France's Renoir Museum, mayor says
At least one stolen painting was abandoned amid a getaway, an official said.
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.
French media quoted the mayor as saying the stolen art was thought to be worth an estimated 9 million euros, or about $10 million.
The incident in the south of France on Tuesday followed last October's brazen and high-profile theft at the Louvre Museum in central Paris, where several people disguised as construction workers cracked open display cases and stole jewelry that once belonged to Emperor Napoleon and his wife.
Local and national police were on site in , the mayor said, adding that a manhunt for the two suspects was underway.
Images published by a news agency showed police officers investigating what appeared to be a hole cut into a chain-link fence outside the museum.
Founded in 1960 and renovated in the 2010s, the museum in the south of France celebrates the work of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, an impressionist painter who died in 1919.
"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."
He added that the theft "confirms the need to immediately launch the comprehensive plan to secure our museums and protect our artworks—a plan to which I have committed."
The city of de Cagnes-sur-Mer said in a post on social media that the museum would be closed until further notice.