Italian police recover Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse after Parma heist

Italian police have recovered three paintings by the French masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that were stolen from the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma in March, the Guardian reported on Friday. The artworks, valued at a total of more than $10m, were seized in an operation that also led to arrests, though the Guardian's report did not specify how many people were detained or where the paintings were found.

The theft, which took place in the early hours of 20 March, was captured on CCTV and drew international attention for its brazenness. The BBC reported on Friday that police released the footage after the art was recovered, showing the moment the works were taken from the museum, which houses one of Italy's most important private collections of 19th- and 20th-century art.

The Magnani Rocca Foundation, set up by the collector Luigi Magnani in a neoclassical villa in Mamiano di Traversetolo, holds works by artists including Goya, Burri and Morandi. The recovery brings a rare happy ending to a case that had become a symbol of the vulnerability of Italy's smaller museums, which often lack the security infrastructure of major institutions like the Uffizi or the Vatican Museums.