Italian authorities announced on Friday the successful recovery of 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. The Carabinieri officers, part of Italy’s cultural heritage protection unit, located the artworks in an apartment in Parma and initiated an investigation involving nine Moldovan individuals in connection with the theft.
The stolen paintings, namely Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises,” Renoir’s “Les Poissons,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse,” were taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo during the night of March 22-23. Experts estimated the value of the recovered works to exceed €9 million ($14.4 million).
In a swift operation captured on video, two masked burglars entered the museum through a window, swiftly removed the paintings from the wall, and made a quick exit in less than three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca, known for its private collection curated by the late music critic Luigi Magnani, boasts artworks by prominent artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens, and Giorgio Morandi.
The successful recovery of these stolen masterpieces marks a significant achievement in combating art theft and preserving cultural heritage.