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Thieves Pull Off Another Heist At A French Museum

Niv Bavarsky

A pair of thieves absconded from a French museum with two Renoir paintings, the latest heist involving valuable works of art in the country that brought us Joan of Arc and Kylian Mbappé.

The bandits struck just before 6am yesterday. They carried out four paintings from Musée Renoir on the French Riviera but only left with two—Madame Colonna Romano, which is worth ~$2.3 million, and Jeune femme au puits, which is valued at $232,000, CNN reported. The crew dropped the other two (Madame Pichon and Coco Reading) as they fled, a sign that the thieves may have realized those works would clash with their living room decor.

It’s been nearly a year since the Louvre was pilfered for $100 million in royal jewels. Other recent museum thefts in the country have seen crooks purloin $11 million in porcelain, $700,000 in gold, and a 2,500-year-old gold torque.

More to come? There’s an alarming (ironically) lack of security at French institutions. A recent parliamentary report found that many museums lack resources to keep their possessions safe, and in 2024, a survey found that nearly half of museums lacked video surveillance. An art theft expert told the Associated Press that thefts will continue unless there’s an increase in funding for security.—DL

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Thieves Pull Off Another Heist At A French Museum

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