Three paintings, all alike in artistry, in rural Parma, where we lay our scheme. From grand museum walls takes a group of thieves, great works by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse. A fourth they tried, till stopped by an alarm, convincing these robbers to make pivots. Accounts suggest no person met with harm, thieves in and out in only three minutes. So now the police are out on the hunt, while the world sits stunned, gobsmacked, in a daze. Didn’t the Louvre just live through this same stunt, dating back 164 days? It did indeed, mayhaps the two share crews. For more we now turn to NBC News:
Thieves made off with three paintings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth millions of euros (dollars) from a museum near the city of Parma in northern Italy, police said on Monday.
The heist took place on the night of March 22-23, with thieves forcing open the entrance door, police said.
The three stolen paintings are “Fish” by Auguste Renoir, “Still Life with Cherries” by Paul Cézanne, and “Odalisque on the Terrace” by Henri Matisse.
The Magnani Rocca Foundation, a private museum, lies in the heart of the countryside 20 kilometers (12 miles) from Parma.
Local media reported that the thieves were able to nab the paintings in less than three minutes and escape across the museum gardens.
Established in 1977, the foundation hosts the collection of the art historian Luigi Magnani and also includes works by Dürer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya and Monet.
The museum believes a structured and organized gang was responsible for the theft, which was interrupted by the alarm, local media reported.
The museum didn’t post any statement about the theft on its website and wasn’t reachable for a comment, as it is closed on Monday.
The crime in Parma comes after a series of high-profile heists at major European museums, including a major incident in October where thieves stole jewels and other items worth 88 million euros ($101 million) from the Louvre in Paris.
Let’s clear something up right off the bat: though they are phonetically similar, don’t confuse the museum’s namesake/benefactor — Italian art collector Luigi Magnani — with US citizen/criminal Luigi Mangione. OK, moving right along… Since this NBC News’ reporting, the stolen artwork has been given an estimated worth of $10 million collectively, $7 million of which is for the Renoir oil painting alone. (Sidenote: every other article I’ve read refers to the Renoir as “Les Poissons,” which directly translates as “pisces” in English, which of course is the zodiac sign symbolized by fish. But still, I’m perplexed by the one outlet going with “Fish.” Unless someone can verify that the fish depicted are salmon, and the different word choice is NBC News very quietly making a nod to swimming upstream/against the tide. I realize this has turned into a rather long tangent but these unexplained anomalies really keep me up at night, people!)
And while we’re getting technical, the three pieces that were stolen are each paintings of a different feather. As I just mentioned, the Renoir is an oil. Cézanne’s “Still Life With Cherries” is pencil and watercolor (I loooove watercolor; so emotional and ethereal), while “Odalisque on the Terrace” (which, true story, I posed for) is an aquatint by Matisse, a process more akin to etching than traditional painting. Just because they may be lost forever doesn’t mean we can’t learn more about them! Not that I want them to be lost, of course, but it has been 164 days since the French crown jewels were last seen, just sayin’. Finally, because this art heist happened in Italy within the same timeframe as the big KitKat heist, I must ask: did police sniff out chocolate fingerprints at the scene?
PS — Yes, I really did write you guys a flipping sonnet, go ahead and count the syllables!
These artworks are in the public domain
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