Italian police have returned three paintings by French masters Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that were stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March.
Reuters writes about this.
The Carabinieriʼs Cultural Heritage Unit has found works of art in an apartment in Parma. Nine Moldovan citizens are involved in the theft.
The paintings were stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, on the night of March 22-23. Experts estimated their total value at more than €9 million.
Among the returned works:
- “Cup and Plate with Cherries” (Tasse et Plat de Cerises) by Paul Cézanne;
- "Fishes" (Les Poissons) by Pierre-Auguste Renoir;
- "Odalisque on the Terrace" (Odalisque sur la Terrasse) by Henri Matisse.
Police released video of the robbery on Friday. It shows two masked men entering the museum through a window, removing three paintings from the walls, and immediately leaving the building. The entire operation lasted less than three minutes.
The Fondazione Magnani Rocca houses a private collection, once assembled by the music critic Luigi Magnani, which includes works by artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi.
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