Stolen Masterpieces by Cezanne, Renoir, and Matisse Recovered

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Three masterpieces that vanished five months ago during a museum heist that took just three minutes are set to return to their original places. Italian police have recovered the artworks, which are valued at around 14 billion won.

Park Chan-beom reports.

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Masked men enter through a museum window.

Making their way into the room containing the art, they systematically take down three masterpieces hanging on the wall.

This was the masterpiece theft that took place last March at a museum in Parma, northern Italy.

It took the suspects just three minutes to grab the paintings and escape from the museum.

Italian police immediately launched an investigation and recovered the three stolen masterpieces about five months later.

The recovered works are Paul Cezanne's 1890 "Still Life with Cherries," Auguste Renoir's 1917 "Fish," and Henri Matisse's 1922 "Odalisque on a Terrace."

The value of these masterpieces is estimated at 9 million euros, or approximately 14.7 billion won.

Police identified nine Moldovan nationals as theft suspects and reportedly found the stolen paintings in an apartment where one of the suspects resided.

The museum was established in 1977 by art collector and critic Luigi Magnani.

Following Magnani's death, his family established the Magnani Foundation to operate the museum.

A lawyer for the foundation told CNN that the theft was "structured and organized," adding, "It is possible they were inspired by the theft that took place at the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, last October."

Video by Cho Moo-hwan
※ Please note: This article was translated by AI and may contain errors.