• Rare paintings stolen from Parma museum
• Police investigate after swift break-in

Italian police announced the theft of valuable artworks by several renowned artists, including Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse, from a museum near the city of Parma.

Authorities said four masked men broke into the Magnani Rocca Foundation villa on March 22 and stole Renoir’s Les Poissons, Cézanne’s Still Life with Cherries, and Matisse’s Odalisque on the Terrace.

The break-in lasted only three minutes, Italian media reported, and the thieves stopped when the museum’s alarm system was triggered, preventing further theft.

This museum is the latest cultural institution targeted following last year’s heist of priceless jewels from the Louvre in Paris.

Reports added that the thieves forced their way through the main door of Villa dei Capolavori in the Parma countryside and took the paintings from the French Room on the first floor. The gang appeared organized and structured and seemed prepared to steal more if not for the alarms and police intervention.

The criminals escaped by climbing over a fence, according to a local broadcaster.

The stolen paintings are valued at around €9 million, with Renoir’s Les Poissons alone worth €6 million, making this one of Italy’s most significant art thefts in recent years.

Renoir, a leading Impressionist painter, completed Les Poissons around 1917. Cézanne’s work, painted circa 1890, is one of several cherry-based still lifes he produced and is rare because it was executed in watercolor during the last years of his life, according to the foundation.

Matisse’s Odalisque on the Terrace (1922) depicts two figures, one reclining under the sun and the other holding a violin.

The case is now under investigation by the Italian Carabinieri and Bologna’s Cultural Heritage Protection Unit. The theft was publicly announced on Sunday.

The Magnani Rocca Foundation was established after the death of Luigi Magnani, the composer and art collector, in 1984 at his family home.