Italian police have recovered three paintings by French masters Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse, stolen in March from a museum near the northern Italian city of Parma. Officials announced this on Friday.
Italian carabinieri from the cultural heritage protection unit returned the stolen works after a complex investigation, police reported. Further details were promised to be released later that day.
Details of the theft and value
The paintings were stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, on the night of March 22 to 23. Art experts estimated their value at over 9 million euros (10.4 million dollars).
Among the recovered works are «Tasse et Plat de Cerises» («Cup and Plate of Cherries») by Cezanne, «Les Poissons» («The Fish») by Renoir and «Odalisque sur la Terrasse» («Odalisque on the Terrace») by Matisse.
On Friday, police released a video of the theft showing two masked robbers breaking in through a window, removing three paintings from the wall and immediately leaving the building. The entire operation took less than three minutes.
The Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum houses a private collection assembled by the late music critic Luigi Magnani. Among the exhibits are works by artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi.
Source: The Straits Times
