PARIS — Two thieves stole four valuable Renoir paintings Tuesday from a small museum on the French Riviera, but abandoned two of them as they fled, the local mayor said. Police are searching for the perpetrators. Surveillance camera footage identified two people entering the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer and stealing four paintings, the town’s mayor, Bryan Masson, said in a statement. The museum’s alarm system went off at 5:48 a.m. and police arrived five minutes later, the mayor’s statement said. He told local newspaper Nice-Matin that two of the stolen paintings were found in the museum’s garden after the thieves fled. The stolen works included “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano,” “Coco Lisant” and “Young Girl at the Well,” and the overall worth of the stolen paintings is US$10.5 million, Nice-Matin reported. An official with the regional police administration confirmed the theft to The Associated Press and the hunt for suspects, and said an investigation is underway. The official, who wasn’t authorized to be publicly named according to police policy, couldn’t confirm the value of the paintings. The museum was closed Tuesday while the investigation unfolded. “Attacking the Renoir Museum is attacking a part of the history and heritage of Cagnes-sur-mer,” the mayor said. He called for greater security measures for museums around France. The theft came after the spectacular heist of crown jewels at the Louvre Museum in Paris last year. The Renoir Museum is housed in the last home of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, where he lived before his death in 1919. It’s the most famous attraction in Cagnes-sur-Mer, situated between Cannes and Nice on the Mediterranean coast. Angela Charlton, The Associated Press
