France's latest art heist: the hunt for two missing Renoir paintings | BBC News

Two paintings by the impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been stolen from a museum in the south of France.

Two thieves broke into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer early on Tuesday, seizing four paintings but dropping two of the works in the museum gardens as they escaped, local Mayor Bryan Masson said.

The paintings, each worth €9m (£7.7m; $10.4m), are the latest high-profile pieces to have been stolen in a string of recent heists in Europe which have thrust the security of art in galleries and museums into the spotlight.

One of the most high-profile was in October last year, when a brazen heist at the Louvre Museum in Paris saw France's priceless crown jewels being stolen.

00:30 What happened?
01:30 Where is the museum
02:30 Local mayor on getaway
03:13 What was stolen
04:08 Could the thieves sell the paintings?
05:24 How big is art theft?
07:08 Could more be done to stop thefts?
08:40 Who is Renoir?

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