Stolen Renoirs recovered in France thanks to DNA, vehicle tracking

NANTERRE, France — DNA left on a protective painting cover helped investigators recover two stolen Renoirs and uncover what they suspected were preparations for another art heist, a French prosecutor said Monday.

Four men were given preliminary charges in the investigation into the Sept. 8 theft from the small Renoir Museum in the town of Cagnes-sur-Mer on the French Riviera. The charges include organized theft and criminal association, Marseille prosecutor Nicolas Bessone said.

One painting, “Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano,” suffered a tear. The other, “Young Woman at the Well,” had slight damage to its frame, Bessone said. He estimated their combined value at $4.7 million.

The thieves used an electric saw to cut through a fence, entered the museum through the ground floor and cut clips securing the frames of four paintings. An alarm sounded and police officers arrived four minutes later, a swift response that “apparently caused the perpetrators to panic,” Bessone said.

“As they fled, they were unable to take all four paintings and abandoned two of them, which were later found in a protective sleeve,” he said.

The DNA found on the abandoned cover matched that of a 29-year-old already under investigation in a drug trafficking…

Original source: https://www.nbcnews.com/business