Italian authorities announced on Friday that Carabinieri officers had successfully located and retrieved three valuable paintings by renowned French artists Paul Cézanne, Henri Matisse, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. The artworks were stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo near Parma in March. The recovered pieces, including Cezanne’s “Tasse et Plat de Cerises,” Renoir’s “Les Poissons,” and Matisse’s “Odalisque sur la Terrasse,” were found in an apartment in Parma. Nine Moldovan nationals are currently under investigation in connection with the theft.
The stolen paintings, with an estimated value exceeding €9 million ($14.4 million), were taken during the night of March 22-23. Surveillance footage released by the police captured the thieves, wearing masks, entering through a window, swiftly removing the paintings from the wall, and fleeing the scene in under three minutes. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca, known for its private collection curated by the late music critic Luigi Magnani, features works by prominent artists like Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens, and Giorgio Morandi.
The recovery of these precious artworks marks a significant breakthrough in the investigation into the high-profile art theft.