Two thieves broke into a museum dedicated to French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir in southern France on Tuesday, stealing "four works of art", one of which they dropped as they fled, a mayor said.
"This morning, two individuals broke into the Renoir Museum and stole four works of art," said Bryan Masson, the far-right mayor of the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer.
"Spotted thanks to the town's video surveillance cameras, the two individuals fled, abandoning one of the stolen paintings as they ran," he said, adding his office estimated the value of the stolen works at 9 million euros ($10 million).
The Renoir Museum was opened in 1960 in the painter's last home before his death in 1919.
Its collection includes objects and furniture that belonged to Renoir, including his easel and wheelchair, as well as portraits, landscapes, and nudes painted by the artist.
The mayor said it took just five minutes for the authorities to respond.
"The museum alarm went off at 5:48 am. At 5:53 am, just five minutes later, our municipal police were on the scene," AFP quoted him as saying.
The theft comes less than a year after eight items valued at around $100 million were stolen during a daylight robbery from the Louvre in Paris.
The four suspected Louvre robbers have been arrested, but the stolen items have still not been found despite extensive searches by French investigators in the Paris region and exchanges with police in Belgium, Italy and beyond.
