Why brazen museum thefts keep happening nearly a year after Louvre heist
A recent heist at a Renoir museum in France follows a trend of increasingly brazen art thefts across Europe. Experts suggest that high-profile robberies, such as the Louvre heist, have emboldened criminals to target smaller institutions.
Why it matters
The rise in museum thefts poses a significant threat to cultural heritage and highlights vulnerabilities in security protocols for art institutions.
Image source, Reuters/Museum Renoir Image caption, The latest heist, at the Renoir museum in the south of France, saw thieves break in by cutting through a fence with an electric knife and hacksaw
When thieves broke into a French museum earlier this week and stole four paintings by the impressionist artist Pierre-Auguste Renoir, worth millions of euros, not everyone was surprised.
Just last month, the European policing agency (Europol) had warned that museum thefts across Europe were growing increasingly brazen.
And just days before the Renoir heist, internationally known art detective Arthur Brand predicted to the BBC that more high-profile burglaries were likely - particularly in the wake of the successful robbery at the Louvre in Paris last October .
The audacious crime in one of the world's most famous museums stunned France, and the stolen jewellery worth €88m (£75m) has still not been recovered, nearly a year on.
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