Five suspects have been arrested by police in connection with the theft of Auguste Renoir artworks from a French museum last month, AFP reported on the 7th local time, citing sources.

They are accused of breaking into the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, a small town near Nice in southern France, in the early hours of September 8 and stealing Renoir's paintings "Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano" and "Young Woman at the Well".

At the time, the thieves cut through a fence with a chainsaw, broke a first-floor window to enter, and stole four works, but fled leaving two behind when police arrived.

The local newspaper Nice-Matin reported that the suspects arrested today include two individuals suspected of having directly stolen the paintings from the museum, and that the two stolen Renoir works have not yet been recovered.

The museum, established in 1960 in the final residence where Renoir lived until his death in 1919, has been exhibiting 13 of Renoir's paintings as well as sculptures, furniture, and photographs.

The two stolen pieces were reportedly on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.

Earlier, city authorities estimated the value of the four initially stolen items at 9 million euros (approx. 14 billion won).

Museums and galleries across Europe, including France, have been suffering from a series of thefts targeting jewelry, cultural heritage, and artworks.

Last year, the Louvre Museum, a major landmark in Paris, had jewelry worth 88 million euros (approx. 137 billion won) stolen, and the stolen items have still not been recovered.

In March of this year, works by Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum in northern Italy, though they were recovered a few months later.
 
(Photo: AP, Courtesy of Renoir Museum, Yonhap News)