Italian authorities announced the successful retrieval of three valuable paintings by renowned French artists Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which were stolen from a museum close to Parma earlier this year. The Carabinieri officers discovered the artworks in an apartment in Parma and disclosed that nine individuals from Moldova are now under investigation in connection with the theft. The stolen pieces, including 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. Art experts estimate the combined value of the recovered paintings to be over €9 million ($14.4 million).
A surveillance video released by the police captures the swift theft, showing two masked burglars swiftly entering through a window, removing the paintings from the wall, and promptly leaving the premises within a span of fewer than three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum houses a private collection curated by the late music critic Luigi Magnani, featuring works by prominent artists like Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens, and Giorgio Morandi.