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Associated Press

Two Renoir paintings stolen from a small French museum on September 8 have yet to be recovered, but if the thieves are hoping to cash in on the artwork, they will be hard-pressed to find a buyer.
Selling well-known, stolen art is impossible to do at an auction house or through other public channels without raising eyebrows. Even under the table, the value plummets. And unlike other eye-catching artefacts such as jewels, paintings cannot be chopped up and sold for parts without losing their entire worth.
Art crime experts stress that most buyers simply do not want the liability. In short, the reality looks nothing like the films.
“People always think that there is this kind of Dr No type from the James Bond movie,” says Arthur Brand, a private art detective based in the Netherlands. “But that’s Hollywood. In the real world, there are no collectors like that.”
Brand, who has investigated art crime for about 20 years, explains that often “nobody will touch” stolen art, particularly high-profile work. Sometimes that means paintings valued at millions of dollars are effectively “worth zero” once they are outside the museum, he added, if not a small fraction of the price.
The theft at the Renoir Museum – the converted last home of painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir – in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a French Riviera commune near Nice, marks the latest high-profile art crime targeting collections around the world, and experts warn there could be more.

A ‘get out of jail free’ card
Cagnes-sur-Mer’s mayor, Bryan Masson, says a group of “well-equipped” burglars stole four Renoir paintings from the museum. But they dropped two of them – Renoir’s Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895) and Coco Reading (1905) – in the museum garden before they fled, the prosecutor’s office said in a statement. Police are still searching for the perpetrators. In the meantime, Renoir’s Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910) and Young Woman at the Well (1886) remain missing.
Masson estimated the value of the combined Renoir works stolen at €9 million (US$10.5 million).
But the probability of profiting from such a theft is “extremely low”, says Erin Thompson, an art crime professor at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York. And in cases that end in arrests, the common takeaway is that “thieves are people who are good at stealing things and bad at thinking through the consequences”, she adds.
Some may try to make money from heists in other ways, such as through demanding a ransom or looking for an insurance payout. But Thompson explains many museums do not have insurance because it is too costly. That is why the practice is so rare in the US, for example, and it would be difficult to negotiate with insurance companies elsewhere without the thieves incriminating themselves.
As a result, if not surrendered or otherwise recovered, stolen paintings may remain hidden – or, in some cases, eventually destroyed to get rid of evidence, Thompson says.
Brand, who collaborates regularly with law enforcement in his art crime investigations, says that he has still seen limited cases of stolen paintings “floating around in the underworld” – perhaps as partial payments for products like drugs. And depending on country-by-country laws, he notes that the promise of returning the art has led to reduced sentences for other charges.
“Some more savvy criminal will acquire it as a ‘get out of jail free’ card, sort of a bargaining chip,” adds Christopher Marinello, a lawyer and founder of Art Recovery International. “So if some drug dealer ever is arrested, he can bargain with the prosecutor and say, ‘Listen, give me a lesser sentence, and I’ll show you where these Renoirs are.’ And that has always worked, and it will work again.”

Why jewels are worth more than art
Stolen paintings are much more difficult to profit from than museums’ other crown jewels – literally.
Jewelled and metal goods have increasingly become theft targets because they can be melted down or broken down into parts. Last year, a handful of experts warned that this could be the fate of the stunning theft of crown jewels at the Louvre Museum in Paris, for example – noting that, if done successfully, smaller pieces could later go up for sale as part of a new necklace, earrings or other jewellery without turning too many heads.
But of course, such pieces would lose their historical worth and, if sold, likely only go for a fraction of their original value. Experts also warn that it is far from a simple process overall – and gems may still be identifiable by characteristics like clarity, for example.
Apart from an emerald-set imperial crown found outside the museum the day of the October 2025 theft, the stolen jewels remain unrecovered.
Paintings, in contrast, do not have the same commodity value that can potentially be parcelled off.
“It’s a canvas with some old oil paint on it,” says art theft expert James Ratcliffe, of the Art Loss Register. “You can’t touch it up. You can’t resell it other than for what it is.”


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Young Woman at the Well (left, 1886) and Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano (1910), by French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, were stolen from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, France, on September 8, 2026. Photos: Reuters

Renoir’s Portrait of Madame Pichon (1895) was stolen from the Renoir Museum in the September 8 heist, but was later retrieved. Photo: Reuters

Renoir’s Coco Reading (1905) was also stolen in the heist but was later retrieved. Photo: Reuters

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A police officer at the gated entrance of the Renoir Museum after the robbery. Photo AFP

A hole cut by the thieves in the outer fence of the Renoir Museum after four paintings were stolen in an early-morning break-in in Cagnes-sur-Mer on Tuesday. Photo: AFP

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The Madonna and Child with a Franciscan in adoration by 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina, which was stolen from the Museo Regionale Accascina in Messina, Italy on Sunday. Photo: Courtesy of Museo Regionale Accascina Messina / Handout via Reuters

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Lifestyle

Arts

Two paintings stolen on Tuesday have a combined estimated value of US$10.5 million, but the thieves’ chance of profiting is ‘extremely low’


Two paintings stolen on Tuesday have a combined estimated value of US$10.5 million, but the thieves’ chance of profiting is ‘extremely low’.


Crime

France

‘Worth zero’: why stolen Renoir paintings have little black market value

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Two paintings stolen on Tuesday have a combined estimated value of US$10.5 million, but the thieves’ chance of profiting is ‘extremely low’

Two paintings stolen on Tuesday have a combined estimated value of US$10.5 million, but the thieves’ chance of profiting is ‘extremely low’