Renoir and Matisse masterpieces worth millions among those stolen in Italian museum heist
The three stolen paintings have an estimated collective value of nearly £8m
Paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth millions were stolen in a heist on a museum near the Italian city of Parma, police have said.
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Four masked men entered the villa of the Magnani Rocca Foundation and stole three paintings on the night of 22 March, a police spokesperson confirmed in a report on the Rai television network.
Fish by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still Life with Cherries by Paul Cézanne and Odalisque on the Terrace by Henri Matisse were stolen, according to Italian media reports.
Together, three paintings have an estimated value of €9m (£7.8m).
The gang were reportedly in and out in the space of three minutes and were only prevented from stealing more by the museum's alarm system.
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The gallery is the latest to be subject to a heist, following the robbery of priceless jewels from the Louvre in Paris last October.
Shortly after the Louvre heist, roughly 2,000 gold and silver coins were also stolen from the French Natural History Museum.
The thieves reportedly forced their way through the main door to the gallery and took the paintings from the French Room on the building's first floor, before escaping by climbing over a fence.
The gang appeared "structured and organised", according to the foundation.
Renoir was one of the leading painters in the Impressionist movement, and completed the oil-on-canvas Les Poissons around 1917.
Meanwhile, Still Life With Cherries is regarded as a rare painting because it employs watercolour, which Cézanne only embraced during the final years of his life.
The theft is now being investigated by Italy's Carabinieri and the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Bologna.
The Magnani Rocca Foundation was established following the death of Luigi Magnani, a composer and art collector, in 1984.