Two stolen Renoir paintings found, six people arrested

Two Renoir paintings stolen from a museum in southern France have been found, and six people arrested, local authorities said.

The two missing paintings were Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well.

The paintings were stolen in September, and the thieves initially stole four valuable Renoir paintings, but abandoned two of the artworks as they fled.

The thieves sliced through a fence, climbed through a window, and initially stole four valuable Renoir paintings in the heist last month.

The whole operation took less than 3 minutes and targeted the most valuable works in the Renoir Museum in the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer, the regional prosecutor’s office said.

The theft conjured up painful memories of the spectacular heist of crown jewels at the Louvre Museum in Paris last year and revived calls for better security and better funding for the many cultural sites large and small that dot France’s landscape.

The mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer, Bryan Masson, issued a statement praising investigators who tracked down the paintings and suspects.

The statement did not elaborate on how the paintings were tracked down.

Police officers patrolled the front entrance of the Musée Renoir after the early-morning heist.

The thieves grabbed 9 million euros worth of art, dumped half of them in a garden, and escaped in under three minutes.