Italian police discovered three works by famous French artists that were stolen five months ago from a museum near Parma. The paintings, valued at over 9 million euros, were kept in a regular cardboard box hidden in a closet, NOS reports. According to NOS, the works by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse were found during a search of one of the houses. Police arrested five suspects — individuals from Moldova living in the Parma area. The paintings were stolen in March from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum, located about 20 kilometers from Parma. The private museum, founded by a collector in 1977, houses one of the most significant art collections in Italy, featuring works by Dürer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya, Monet, and other renowned masters. The robbery was captured on surveillance cameras. The criminals acted quickly and apparently knew in advance where the desired works were located. Using a tractor, they broke through the gates, entered the museum grounds, and within just three minutes took the paintings, escaping through the museum garden. The most valuable of the stolen works was the watercolor "Still Life with Cherries" by Paul Cézanne, created between 1885 and 1887. Its value is estimated at around 6 million euros.  The criminals also stole Pierre-Auguste Renoir's work "Fish" from 1917, valued at about 3 million euros, and Henri Matisse's aquatint "Odalisque on the Terrace" from 1922, estimated at around 20,000 euros. The museum believes that an organized group was behind the crime. The arrested individuals are suspected not only of stealing artworks but also of a series of burglaries of homes and businesses. During the search, police found other stolen items worth several thousand euros. A crucial role in the investigation was played by items left behind by the criminals in the museum. Investigators found a pickaxe and a fire extinguisher, from which serial numbers had been removed. Experts managed to restore the markings and establish that these items were linked to one of the residential complexes. Five months after the audacious three-minute robbery, artworks worth over 9 million euros have been recovered. Now the investigation must definitively establish the roles of the arrested individuals and determine whether they are involved in other thefts in the region.
