Italy recovers Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse works stolen from museum

ROME, Aug 14 - Italian police have recovered three paintings by French masters Paul Cezanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that were stolen from a museum near the northern city of Parma in March, officials said on Friday.

Carabinieri officers from Italy's cultural heritage protection unit recovered the works after what police described as a complex investigation. More information was due to be released later in the day.

The paintings were taken from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, during the night of March 22 to 23. Art experts said their estimated value exceeded €9 million ($10.4 million).

The recovered works are Cezanne's "Tasse et Plat de Cerises" ("Cup and Plate of Cherries"), Renoir's "Les Poissons" ("The Fish") and Matisse's "Odalisque sur la Terrasse" ("Odalisque on the Terrace").

Police on Friday released a video of the theft, showing two masked burglars entering via a window, grabbing the three paintings off the wall and then immediately exiting the building, in an operation that took less than three minutes.

The Fondazione Magnani Rocca houses a private collection assembled by the late music critic Luigi Magnani, including works by Titian, Francisco Goya, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Claude Monet, Peter Paul Rubens and Giorgio Morandi. REUTERS