Four charged after two stolen Renoirs are recovered

Four men have received preliminary charges in connection with the theft of two Renoir paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said. Investigators recovered both works, and Bessone said DNA evidence and vehicle tracking helped identify suspects in the case. The paintings, Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and Young Woman at the Well, were stolen on September 8. Bessone said the thieves cut through a fence with an electric saw, entered the museum and removed clips securing four paintings. An alarm sounded, and the perpetrators fled without taking all four works, abandoning two in a protective cover. According to Bessone, DNA found on the cover matched a 29-year-old man already under investigation in a drug-trafficking case. Police were tracking his vehicle as part of that investigation. Vehicle data showed that the man and a 41-year-old visited the home of a third suspect after the theft, Bessone said. Investigators later recovered the Renoirs from behind a wall beneath a staircase. Bessone said the third suspect acknowledged hiding them there. The two men suspected of carrying out the museum theft denied wrongdoing, he said.