Portugal Colonial - Italian police recover stolen Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse works

The paintings were taken by thieves from the villa of the Magnani-Rocca Foundation, near Parma in northern Italy, in a heist that lasted under three minutes.

Parma chief of police Andrea Pagliaro told AFP the investigation centred around a gang of nine Moldavian suspects.

Five are accused of carrying out the theft, he said.

Video footage released by police showed two thieves wearing headlamps and with their faces covered entering the villa by breaking through a window.

They headed straight into a room where the three paintings hung and took them off the wall, before heading back to the window and passing them through to an accomplice waiting outside.

They made off with "Fish" by Auguste Renoir, "Still Life with Cherries" by Paul Cezanne, and "Odalisque on the Terrace" by Henri Matisse.

The Renoir is worth three million euros ($3.5 million), the Cezanne six million euros and the Matisse some 20,000 euros, police said.

The paintings were recovered at the house of one of the suspects, police chief Pagliaro told AFP.

The Magnani-Rocca Foundation -- 20 kilometres (12 miles) from Parma -- houses the collection of art historian Luigi Magnani, which also includes works by Durer, Rubens, Van Dyck, Goya and Monet.

The theft is the latest in a series of robberies targeting European museums.

Last October, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight, escaping in less than eight minutes with jewellery worth $102 million.

A.Seabra--PC