Two work by Auguste Renoir stolen a month in the past from a museum in the south of France have been recovered, the native city corridor has said.
The two works were seized on 8 September when thieves cut through a fence and smashed a window at the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, where the French impressionist had lived during his remaining years.
The native mayor praised authorities for recovering the work and said the information gave immense pleasure and profound aid.
Six suspects have also been arrested in relation with the heist at Renoir Museum, the city corridor confirmed in a assertion.
The theft was the newest in a collection of high-profile artwork heists in Europe.
The two lacking work were the Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Jeune fille au puits (1886).
The thieves had used an electric saw to cut through the body mountings inside the museum and had initially made off with 4 work, but dropped two of them in the museum’s garden as they fled
“These two paintings are far more than works of art. They are part of our city’s history, our cultural heritage and the legacy Auguste Renoir left to Cagnes-sur-Mer,” said Mayor Bryan Masson, who is half of France’s National Rally.
Further particulars of their restoration were due to be revealed later on Friday.
The Renoir Museum is home to 12 of the well-known painter’s artworks.
Opened in 1960, it homes a selection of objects that once belonged to him, including his easel and wheelchair, as nicely as pictures and personal letters.
Earlier this yr work by Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse were stolen from a museum close to the Italian metropolis of Parma, in a raid that lasted just three minutes. They were recovered in August.
France saw its greatest artwork theft in years last October, when crown jewels were stolen in broad daylight from the Louvre in Paris.
Disguised as construction staff, the thieves broke into the Louvre’s first-floor Apollo Gallery during the museum’s opening hours.
They used an angle-grinder to open show instances and made off with €88m (£78m) of jewels that once belonged to France’s Nineteenth-Century queens and empresses.
The Louvre was subsequently criticised for under-investing in security.
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