A gang of thieves stole millions of dollars’ worth of paintings from a museum in a heist lasting just three minutes. Four masked men entered the villa of the Magnani Rocca Foundation, near Parma in northern Italy, on the night of March 22 and made off with three valuable paintings: Les Poissons [Fish] by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still Life with Cherries by Paul Cézanne and Odalisque on the Terrace by Henri Matisse. The value of the three paintings is estimated at more than $10.3 million. The Magnani Rocca Foundation said the four thieves appeared “structured and organized” and could have made off with more paintings had the security alarm not gone off. Italian law enforcement is now investigating the theft, which was only revealed to the public on Sunday, despite having taken place last week. The incident, one of the biggest art thefts in Italy in recent years, follows the brazen daylight heist at the world-famous Louvre Museum in Paris last October. Thieves entered the world-famous museum using a mechanical lift to enter the second floor and made off with jewels worth more than $100 million.
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