Paintings ‘worth millions’ stolen from museum in Italy | World News

Three famous paintings worth millions have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy.

Works by French artists Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse and Paul Cezanne were taken in an operation that lasted less than three minutes, police said.

The thieves targeted the Magnani-Rocca Foundation villa, south of the city Parmaon the evening of March 22.

According to sources close to the investigation, the stolen masterpieces were Renoir’s Les Poissons, Cezanne’s Still Life With Cherries and Matisse’s Odalisque On The Terrace.

The value of the three items was “tens of millions of euros”, an investigator said.

However, Italian public broadcaster Rai reported the stolen works were worth €9 million (£7.8 million).

There has been no official confirmation regarding the combined value of the paintings.

The paintings are on the first floor of the so-called Villa of Masterpieces in the Sala dei Francesi – the Room of the French.

The thieves, wearing balaclavas, entered by forcing open the door and were described as an “organized group”.

They were disturbed by the museum’s alarm system and fled before they could take more paintings, “which was their intention”.

Investigators are assessing the museum’s security footage.

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The Magnani-Rocca Foundation is a private museum located in the heart of the countryside 12 miles from Parma.

Founded in 1977, the foundation houses the collection of art historian Luigi Magnani and also includes works by Durer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya and Monet.

This comes after a series of high-profile robberies at major European museums, including last October when thieves stole jewelery and other items. worth £76 million from the Louvre in Paris.