Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse paintings stolen in Italian job

Paitings by Renoir, Cézanne and Matisse worth millions were stolen in a heist on a museum near the Italian city of Parma, police say.

Four masked men entered the Magnani Rocca Foundation villa on 22 March, police said, making off with Les Poissons by Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Still Life with Cherries by Paul Cézanne and Odalisque on the Terrace by Henri Matisse.

The gang were in and out in the space of three minutes, Italian media reports, and were only interrupted by the museum's alarm system, preventing them from stealing more.

The institution is the latest to be subject to a heist, following the brazen daylight robbery of priceless jewels from the Louvre in Paris last October.

The thieves involved in last weekend's robbery forced their way through the main door to the Villa dei Capolavori, nestled in the Parma countryside, and nabbed the paintings from the French Room in the building's first floor, Italian media reports.

The foundation was quoted as saying the gang appeared "structured and organised", and seemed to have intended on stealing more were it not for the private collection's alarms going off and police being called.

The criminals escaped by climbing over a fence, according to regional public broadcaster TGR, which first reported the theft.

It estimated the stolen paintings had a combined worth of €9m (£7.8m), with Les Poissons alone worth €6m - making it one of the most significant art thefts in Italy in recent years.

Renoir was one of the leading painters in the Impressionist movement, and completed the oil-on-canvas Les Poissons around 1917.

The Cézanne, completed around 1890, is one of several cherry-based still-lifes the post-Impressionist painter produced in his lifetime - though this one rare because it employs watercolour, which he only embraced during his final years, according to the foundation.

Odalisque on the Terrace, painted in 1922, depicts two figures - one reclining in the sun while another holds a violin.

The theft is now being investigated by Italy's Carabinieri and the Cultural Heritage Protection Unit of Bologna. News of the heist was only made public on Sunday.

The Magnani Rocca Foundation was established following the death of Luigi Magnani, a composer and art collector, in 1984 in his family home.