Italian authorities announced on Friday that three valuable paintings by renowned French artists Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which were stolen from a museum near Parma in March, have been successfully recovered by the Carabinieri officers. The artworks, including Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises,” Renoir’s “Les Poissons,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse,” were found in an apartment in Parma, leading to the investigation of nine Moldovan individuals in connection with the theft.
The paintings were taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo during the night of March 22-23. The estimated value of the stolen artworks was over €9 million ($14.4 million). A video released by the police depicted the swift burglary, where two masked thieves entered through a window, swiftly removed the paintings from the wall, and made a quick exit in less than three minutes.
The Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum is renowned for its private collection curated by the late music critic Luigi Magnani, featuring works by artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens, and Giorgio Morandi. The recovery of these valuable paintings marks a significant victory in the fight against art theft.
