Paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse stolen from Italian museum

Published 31 Mar, 2026 02:29pm 1 min read
A handout picture of the painting “Cup and Plate of Cherries” by Paul Cezanne. – Reuters
A handout picture of the painting “Cup and Plate of Cherries” by Paul Cezanne. – Reuters
A handout picture of the painting “Fish” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. – Reuters
A handout picture of the painting “Fish” by Pierre-Auguste Renoir. – Reuters
A handout picture of the painting “Odalisque on the Terrace” by Henri Matisse. – Reuters
A handout picture of the painting “Odalisque on the Terrace” by Henri Matisse. – Reuters

Three paintings by French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, ​reportedly worth an estimated $10 million in total, ‌have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy, police said on Monday.

The theft took place at ​the Fondazione Magnani Rocca, on the ​outskirts of the city of Parma, during ⁠the night of March 22-23, the Carabinieri ​police said in a statement.

Thieves broke into the ​building’s main entrance and took Cezanne’s Tasse et Plat de Cerises (Cup and plate of cherries), Renoir’s Les Poissons (The fish) and ​Matisse’s Odalisque sur la Terrasse (Odalisque on the terrace), ​the police added.

Italian public broadcaster Rai reported the stolen ‌works ⁠were worth 9 million euros ($10.34 million), a figure that was not confirmed by the Carabinieri.

Three-minute theft

The museum, home to ​a private ​collection compiled ⁠by the late music critic and musicologist Luigi Magnani, said separately ​that the theft took less than ​three ⁠minutes.

The Fondazione Magnani Rocca’s collection also includes works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, ⁠Claude ​Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and ​Giorgio Morandi, according to its website.

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