Italian authorities have successfully recovered three valuable paintings by renowned French artists Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which were stolen from a museum near Parma in March. The Carabinieri officers, part of Italy’s cultural heritage protection unit, located the stolen artworks in an apartment in Parma and initiated an investigation involving nine Moldovan nationals in connection with the theft.
The stolen paintings, namely Cézanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises,” Renoir’s “Les Poissons,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse,” were taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo during the night of March 22-23. Art experts valued the recovered artworks at over €9 million ($14.4 million).
A video released by the police depicted the swift theft, where two masked burglars entered through a window, swiftly removed the paintings from the wall, and swiftly exited the building, completing the operation in less than three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum hosts a private collection featuring works by renowned artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Claude Monet, and others, assembled by the late music critic Luigi Magnani.