Burglars broke into the musée Auguste Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer during the night from Monday to Tuesday and stole four works. The security alarm went off at 5:48, but the thieves still got away before police arrived.
The museum sits in the last home of Pierre-Auguste Renoir, the domaine des Collettes. Its collection includes about a dozen original Renoir paintings and around forty sculptures, along with furniture, personal objects, photographs and archives, so the loss reaches into a compact group of works rather than a large general collection.
Glass wall entry in Cagnes-sur-Mer
Two burglars appeared on surveillance video cutting paintings, then entering by breaking a glass wall. Investigators later found two zipped bags in the museum garden that may have belonged to them.
Four works were taken, and one work was abandoned inside the museum. That leaves the total loss to be measured not only by count, but by which objects the burglars were able to carry out before fleeing.
DCOS investigation
The DCOS was assigned to the investigation after the burglary. That means the case now moves from the scene itself to tracing the stolen works, the abandoned item, and the route the burglars used to leave Cagnes-sur-Mer.
The alarm timing gives the sharpest timeline in the case: the break-in happened overnight, the alarm sounded at 5:48, and the thieves left before police arrived. For a museum holding a small number of original Renoir works, the immediate practical issue is the same one the investigators now face: where the four stolen works went, and whether they can still be recovered.
