Theft at the Cagnes-sur-Mer museum, two paintings by Renoir stolen

Only two Renoir paintings were stolen last night from the Cagnes-sur-Mer museum by two "well-equipped and well-informed" thieves, said the municipality's mayor, Bryan Masson.

In their hasty escape, while the burglar alarm sirens were sounding and the police were arriving (officers on site in less than 5 minutes), the thieves only took four of Renoir's paintings out of the 12 present in the museum, and were then forced to abandon two of them in the museum garden.

The intervention of the new police dog supplied to the municipal police also forced the criminals to abandon the paintings, according to what was reported by the deputy mayor Caroline d'Amat, interviewed by Le Parisien: "It was certainly his action that frightened the thieves into their escape, and forced them to abandon two works in the museum garden".

According to d'Amat herself, one of the two abandoned paintings is Renoir's work "representing Madame Pichon". It is an oil painting created by Renoir in 1895, which portrays a half-length portrait of Sophie Marguerite Verdier, wife of the French politician and diplomat Stephen Pichon.