Italian authorities announced 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 close to Parma earlier this year. The Carabinieri officers uncovered the artworks in an apartment in Parma and initiated an investigation involving nine Moldovan individuals linked to 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. Experts valued the paintings at over €9 million ($14.4 million).
Surveillance footage released by the police depicted the swift theft, with two masked burglars entering through a window, swiftly removing the paintings from the wall, and exiting the premises in under three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca 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.