Stolen Cézanne, Renoir and Matisse recovered after five-month hunt

Italian police have recovered three paintings by the French masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse, stolen from the Fondazione Magnani Rocca museum in Mamiano di Traversetolo, near Parma, in March. The artworks, collectively valued at more than €10 million, were found five months after the nighttime heist, according to the Guardian and the New York Times. On Friday, police released new CCTV footage showing two masked burglars entering through a window and grabbing the canvases, the BBC reported.

The recovery marks a rare success in the murky world of art theft, where stolen masterpieces often vanish for years or are quietly ransomed back. The Italian military police said the paintings had been recovered, and nine Moldovans are being investigated in connection with the theft, Al Jazeera reported. The Fondazione Magnani Rocca, a private collection housed in a neoclassical villa, had been the target of a carefully executed raid that drew international attention to Italy's regional museums.