5 Paris Art Museums Shut Doors Amid Thefts

Five Paris art museums closed their doors today to individual visitors after paintings were stolen from three museums, including a Renoir cut out of its frame at the Louvre, over a span of several hours.

Jacques Sallois, director of national museums, said security will be tightened at the city’s major museums, which remained open. He refused to say what measures will be taken.

The museums closed to individuals are relatively small and focus on the works or the collections of a particular individual--the Eugene Delacroix, Gustave Moreau, Jean-Jacques Henner, Hebert and Ennery museums.

Sallois’ unprecedented announcement came shortly after police revealed that a third museum had suffered a theft during the short time span Wednesday.

Police said it was possible all three thefts were committed by the same person or group, moving across the city center from one museum to another.

According to investigators, the theft revealed today apparently was the first to occur in the series.

An 1816 work by French landscape painter Paul Huet was lifted off its hook Wednesday morning at the Carnavalet Museum, a historical museum in one of the oldest sections of Paris.

The painting, “Les Moulins de la Glaciere,” was estimated to be worth about $14,500.

The other two stolen paintings were cut from their frames--Renoir’s “Portrait of a Seated Woman” from the Louvre and Ernest Hebert’s “Portrait of Monaluccia” from the museum named after the artist.

Both were small format paintings, a type often chosen by thieves because they can be easily concealed.

“Portrait of a Seated Woman” (1890-1895), measures 13.5 by 10.5 inches. Hebert’s work, painted about 1870, measures 14 by 12 inches.

The theft of the Renoir was discovered about 2:15 p.m., officials said. The Hebert was discovered missing from the Hebert Museum, across the Seine River on the Left Bank, about an hour later.

All three victimized museums are run by the government.

Officials gave no estimates of the value of the Renoir and Hebert. Independent experts suggested a possible value of $300,000 to $600,000 for the Renoir, but said it was impossible to give a precise valuation and noted that Renoir had done scores of portraits of women in his later years.

The Louvre’s director, Michel Laclotte, said the theft of “Portrait of a Seated Woman” appeared to be the work of an “especially clever” professional.

“The canvas was very thin, the cutting instrument was probably extremely sharp and caused so few vibrations that the electronic sensor did not pick them up,” he said.

Laclotte led reporters to the spot where the portrait had been hanging--an isolated stairwell leading to the Denon Gallery, on the top floor of the Pavillon de Flore overlooking the Seine.

Head painting curator Pierre Rosenberg said the Renoir had been on display in the stairwell for several years, due to renovations in other sections of the museum, once a royal palace. It was donated to the Louvre in 1961 by French collector Victor Lion.

Rosenberg said Renoir is a “magic name” among art lovers, which could explain the theft--the first at the Louvre in more than 10 years.

Sallois said there is no evidence of negligence on the part of museum guards.