There is not a word more, no statement from those who lead the Foundation and those who work there. Visitors, however, can’t help but wonder how it could have happened.
The French rooms: the stolen paintings and what remained
The stolen works were located in two adjacent rooms, one larger and other smaller, far from the entrance. One must to go to the second floor, turn left, and enter the first door to the left. Following the theft, both rooms seem complete to unfamiliar eyes. To read, however, the visitor information sheets that are in each room, the three missing pieces stand out. There are names and titles, but not paintings.
One painting was taken by thieves and then abandoned: it is another Renoir from the collection, Paysage de Cagnes, and it has a wall to itself opposite a Monet.
On the same floor is the space dedicated to Giorgio Morandi, a very rich collection. On the lower floor, before the rooms for temporary exhibitions you pass by Empire-style furniture, masterpieces from Titian to Rubens, Van Dick and Goya. Visiting this villa takes you on a journey through art history, and its splendor lingers in your eyes as you leave.
How could this have happened?
But questions remain, and the investigators are not talking. The investigation has been entrusted to the Carabinieri of Parma and the Specialized Unit for the Protection of Cultural Heritage in Bologna, under the coordination of the Public Prosecutor’s Office. For almost a week, the public wasn’t alerted to the theft nor its investigation. Speculation has settled on a few different theories. First among them is organized crime. The targets were the two Renoir paintings, one of which was left behind, and two smaller in size and less valuable works, both under a million euros. These are easily transportable works, but certainly not marketable in broad daylight, and they cannot be dismembered like the jewels in the Louvre. They have been reported to art police around the world on international databases such as the Art Loss Register. It is easy to imagine parallel markets that appreciate Impressionist and Post-Impressionist works.