A group of four men went into a historic villa museum near Parma, Italy and took three very valuable paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse. This happened quickly in just three minutes and the police are now looking for the thieves. The theft occurred at the Magnani Rocca Foundation on March 22. Has shocked the art world.
The Daring Break-In at Villa dei Capolavori
The thieves moved fast. They broke into the Villa dei Capolavori, a house in the countryside near Parma and went straight to the French Room on the first floor. There they took three paintings: Pierre-Auguste Renoirs Les Poissons, which he painted around 1917 Paul Cézannes Still Life with Cherries, which he painted around 1890 and Henri Matisses Odalisque on the Terrace, which he painted in 1922.
The Italian media said the thieves climbed over a fence to get away as the alarms were sounding. The museums security system started working in time which probably saved some other valuable things from being stolen. The foundation said the thieves were “structured and organized” which means they probably planned this beforehand. Know More
What Makes These Paintings So Valuable?
These paintings are not just nice to look at they are very important in the history of art. They are worth a lot of money around €9 million. Renoirs Les Poissons is a painting of fish. It is worth around €6 million because it is a beautiful example of his work.
Cézannes painting of cherries is special because he did not often paint with watercolor during the time he was getting older.. Matisses Odalisque is a happy painting of two people sitting on a sunny porch one playing a violin.
This is not the time something like this has happened. The Magnani Rocca Foundation is now on a list of places that have had things stolen like the Louvre in Paris where someone stole jewels last October. The police in Italy are working to stop these thefts. They are trying to find the people who stole the paintings from the Magnani Rocca Foundation. The foundation is very sad, about what happened because it was started by a man named Luigi Magnani, who wanted to share his love of art with everyone. Read More
