Italian authorities have successfully retrieved 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. Carabinieri officers discovered the artworks in an apartment in Parma and have 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 have estimated the combined value of the recovered paintings to be over €9 million ($14.4 million).
A surveillance video released by the police depicts the swift theft, where two masked burglars entered through a window, swiftly removed the paintings from the wall, and exited within a span of three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca is known for housing a private collection by the late Luigi Magnani, featuring artworks by prominent artists such as Titian, Francisco Goya, Claude Monet, and Giorgio Morandi.
