ReportStolen Renoirs: Expert says 90% chance they returnAired September 9, 2026 at 8:55 AM UTCWritten September 9, 2026 at 8:58 AM UTCRead the write-upThis storyTranscript · LOADING0:00Two Renoirs are missing after a pre-dawn raid on a French Riviera museum.0:04The works are worth millions, and one was on loan from the Musée d'Orsay.0:08The mayor calls it an attack on the town's heritage.0:10The question now: will these famous canvases ever resurface?0:14Just after 5:48 in the morning, the alarm sounded.0:17Municipal police arrived five minutes later at 5.53.0:20In that window, two thieves sliced through the garden fence with a metal saw and an0:24electric knife, climbed in through a ground-floor window, and cut four canvases from0:28their mounts.0:29With officers closing in, they fled through the grounds, dropping two of the0:32paintings as they went.0:33They escaped with two.0:34The mayor's office initially put the four works at about nine million euros, roughly0:39ten point four million dollars.0:40But the two still missing are valued very differently.0:43The 1910 portrait, Madame Colonna Romano, is estimated at more than 2.3 million.0:49The 1886 piece, Young Woman at the Well, at about 230,000.0:53Both were on loan from the Musée d'Orsay.0:56Confirmed, four canvases were cut from their frames and two were recovered in the1:00gardens.1:00But reporters differ on how many were actually taken, and the value estimates range1:04widely.1:05Some say three, some say four, with different numbers dropped.1:08The value has been quoted at nine million euros, ten million euros, and ten million1:12dollars.1:13The museum sits in the hilltop town of Cag-sur-Mer, where Renoir spent his final1:18years.1:18Two of the stolen works were on loan from Paris's Musée d'Orsay, and the1:22investigation runs out of Marseille.1:24Robert Whitman, who founded the FBI's art crime team and recovered over 225 million1:29dollars in stolen art, says the missing canvases will likely come back.1:33Mayor Brian Masson calls the theft an attack on the town's heritage.1:37Deputy Mayor Caroline DeMott issued the lower valuations.1:40Here's Whitman's logic.1:42There's no viable black market for a famous painting.1:45Once a canvas is known stolen, its commercial value collapses, making it nearly1:49impossible to sell.1:51He puts the recovery rate for million-dollar paintings at about 90%.1:55He also links the brazenness of the raid to rising art and gold prices, with gold1:59above $4,000 an ounce.2:01But he notes the canvases themselves are poor loot precisely because they are so2:05well known.2:06The Marseille prosecutor has opened an investigation for theft by an organized gang.2:10As of today, no arrests have been made and no suspect publicly named.2:14Two zippered bags possibly belonging to the thieves were found in the garden.2:18The mayor urged national museum security measures, so will the painters resurface?2:22If Whitman is right, the odds are good, but when and through whom the police have2:27not said.Explore with HeyDexFollow via RSSThe shortThe short ↗