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It seems like a movie storyline, but it actually took place in the hills of Parma. On the night of March 22nd and 23rd, a team of hooded criminals broke into the Magnani Rocca Foundation's Villa dei Capolavori in Mamiano di Traversetolo and stole three paintings worth around €9 million in less than three minutes. The haul included Cézanne’s 'Tasse et plat de cerises', valued at around €6 million, Renoir’s 'Les Poissons', worth around €3 million, and Matisse’s 'Odalisque sur la terrasse'; the thieves also tried to take another Renoir but failed. What gave them away were the two pickaxes used in the robbery, which were purchased with a credit card. On August 14, the Carabinieri discovered the paintings undamaged, wrapped in white cloth, in an apartment in Parma, and five people were detained. The group had tried to sell the pieces abroad, but the media attention made that impossible, forcing the criminals to keep them hidden in the city. The treasures were returned to the Sala Goya with an official ceremony in early September, and since yesterday, the public has once again been able to admire them in the villa commissioned by collector Luigi Magnani, one of Italy’s most important collections of Impressionist art.
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