Paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne and Henri Matisse were stolen from a museum in northern Italy during a daring raid that authorities say lasted only three minutes.
Among the works taken were Renoir’s 1917 oil painting, Les Poissons, Cézanne’s 1890 watercolor, Tasse et plat de cerises, and Matisse’s 1922 artwork, Odalisque sur la terrasse.
The artworks were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation, located close to Parma, according to a spokesperson for the Carabinieri of Parma and the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Bologna.
Authorities said four masked men entered the museum through a first-floor door sometime overnight between March 22 and 23.
The museum reportedly kept news of the theft hidden in the days that followed in the hope that the suspects might return and be apprehended.
Investigators said security footage captured the thieves escaping with the paintings through the villa’s sprawling gardens while alarms blared throughout the property.
No arrests have yet been made, and the museum remains open to visitors during normal operating hours.
The Magnani Rocca Foundation regularly borrows artworks from major institutions worldwide, including the David Zwirner Gallery in New York City and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
A lawyer representing the foundation told CNN that the theft was “structured and organized” and suggested the suspects may have drawn inspiration from how easily intruders entered the Louvre Museum in Paris last October.
The lawyer also described it as a “clearly planned heist” but said the thieves were not entirely successful because of the foundation’s internal security measures, including automatic door locks and alarm systems.
Italy’s specialized Carabinieri art division recovers around 100,000 stolen artifacts from around the world annually through an advanced monitoring network for missing artworks, according to officials.
Luigi Magnani, who died in 1984 at the age of 78, was an art critic, musicologist and writer. His estate and private collection, featuring works by Titian, Albrecht Dürer, Peter Paul Rubens, Francisco Goya, Antonio Canova, Claude Monet and Giorgio Morandi, was opened to the public in 1990.
The estate outside Parma is known for its neoclassical and Empire-style furnishings, landscaped gardens, exotic plants, monumental trees and free-roaming colorful and white peacocks.
The foundation is home to a permanent collection spanning from Renaissance-era works to contemporary art.
