Two paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir were stolen this week from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer, southern France, after thieves cut through a fence with bolt cutters and broke in overnight. The theft has puzzled commentators, since Renoir's reputation has suffered in recent decades compared with fellow impressionists such as Monet, Cézanne and Degas, with critics and even a 2015 protest campaign, Renoir Sucks at Painting, dismissing his work as kitsch and chocolate-box. Even so, the robbery is notably timed, coinciding with the National Gallery's forthcoming Renoir and Love exhibition in London next month.

The stolen works are Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano and the unfinished Jeune Femme au Puits, while the thieves reportedly left other paintings behind. Renoir's standing has long been contested: contemporaries including Édouard Manet and Mary Cassatt were openly critical of his work, and his history includes refusing to exhibit alongside the Jewish impressionist Camille Pissarro. An art detective quoted in the piece suggested the thieves would struggle to know what to do with the stolen paintings, underscoring the article's central puzzle over the motive for targeting a lesser-regarded artist's regional museum.