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Investigators in France used DNA evidence and vehicle tracking to help recover two paintings worth millions of euros that were stolen from a Renoir museum last month.
Four men have been handed preliminary charges after the impressionist artist’s “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano” and “Young Woman at the Well” works were taken from the Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French riviera in a daring September heist.
The suspects are believed to have gained entry to the museum after sawing through a fence using an electric saw. They then cut clips securing four paintings before an alarm went off.
Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone told reporters on Monday that this caused the suspects to panic and that they abandoned two paintings as they fled. These were apparently later found in a protective cover.
Bessone said a breakthrough came when DNA found on an abandoned cover matched that of a 29-year-old who was already being investigated by police in a drug trafficking case, and that the man’s vehicle was being tracked as part of the investigation.
Tracking data showed that the suspect and a 41-year-old man had visited the home of a third man after the theft took place, per Bessone.
Investigators believed a plot to carry out another heist was also in motion, after surveillance found the 29-year-old had visited the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence on 3 October. The Maeght Foundation opened in 1964 and is home to works from celebrated artists including Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, and Alberto Giacometti.
The suspect is then said to have met up with another man who is known to police from art theft and forgery cases in the early 2000s.
The arrests were prompted by the “very strong suspicion that another heist was imminent,” Bessone said.
The third suspect hid the paintings behind a wall under a staircase following the theft, from where investigators recovered the Renoirs, he added.
Additional sources • AP