Paintings by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse stolen from Italian museum

Three masterpieces by Renoir, Cezanne, and Matisse, valued at around $10 million, were stolen in a daring nighttime heist at the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum near Parma, Italy. The theft reportedly took less than three minutes, with police launching an investigation to recover the stolen artworks.

Reuters

30 March 2026 at 14:05:32

A handout picture of the painting "Cup and Plate of Cherries" by Paul Cezanne, one of three artworks stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation on the night of March 22/23 in Parma, Italy in this image obtained by Reuters on March 30, 2026.

Magnani Rocca Foundation/Handout via REUTERS

Three paintings by French masters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cezanne and Henri Matisse, reportedly worth an estimated $10 million in total, have been stolen from a museum in northern Italy, police said on Monday.

The theft took place at the Fondazione Magnani Rocca, on the outskirts of the city of Parma, during the night of March 22-23, the Carabinieri police said in a statement.

Thieves broke into the building's main entrance and took Cezanne's "Tasse et Plat de Cerises" (Cup and plate of cherries), Renoir's "Les Poissons" (The fish) and Matisse's "Odalisque sur la Terrasse" (Odalisque on the terrace), the police added.

Italian public broadcaster Rai reported the stolen works were worth 9 million euros ($10.34 million), a figure that was not confirmed by the Carabinieri.

THEFT TOOK LESS THAN THREE MINUTES

The museum, home to a private collection compiled by the late music critic and musicologist Luigi Magnani, said separately that the theft took less than three minutes.

The Fondazione Magnani Rocca's collection also includes works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi, according to its website.

($1 = 0.8701 euros)

-Reporting by Alvise Armellini, editing by Giulia Segreti and Barbara Lewis/Reuters