Two paintings by the French impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been stolen from a museum in the south of France, in the latest in a string of high-profile art thefts across Europe. Two thieves broke into the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer — a coastal town in the French Riviera — in the early hours of Tuesday morning, initially seizing four works before abandoning two of them in the museum gardens as they fled. The two paintings still missing have been identified as "Madame Colonna Romano" and "Young Woman at the Well," each estimated to be worth around €9 million ($10.4 million).

CCTV footage captured the pair cutting through a perimeter fence to enter the museum grounds. According to local Mayor Bryan Masson, the thieves were dressed in helmets, gloves, and combat gear, and carried an electric knife and a hacksaw to cut through the pins securing the paintings' frames to the walls. They appeared to have entered the building itself by smashing through a glass facade. The security alarm triggered at 05:48 local time, and police arrived within five minutes — but the suspects had already fled. Two zip-up bags found at the scene may have belonged to the thieves. "These were people who knew exactly what they were doing," the mayor said, describing them as "well-equipped" and "clearly well-informed."

The Musée Renoir opened in 1960 in the former home where Renoir lived until his death in 1919. In addition to paintings, the museum houses the artist's personal belongings, including his easel and wheelchair, making it a site of significant cultural heritage.

The heist comes less than a year after a brazen raid on the Louvre in Paris, in which eight French crown jewels were stolen in October last year. Only one item, a tiara, has since been recovered. In response, France's Ministry of Culture introduced a 33-point security plan in July, which included recommendations to temporarily remove vulnerable artworks from display and store them in secure locations. Last month, Italian police also recovered works by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse that had been stolen from a museum near Parma in March.

Art recovery experts have warned that European museums are facing an escalating threat, with inadequate security leaving irreplaceable works vulnerable. Tuesday's theft will intensify scrutiny of whether France's post-Louvre security reforms have gone far enough, and raises urgent questions about the protection of smaller regional institutions that may lack the resources of their larger counterparts.