The thieves behind last month's Renoir heist on the French Riviera were preparing a second strike — this time at the Fondation Maeght — when police moved in, investigators have revealed. On 8 September, two burglars took four paintings from the small Musée Renoir in Cagnes-sur-Mer near Nice, including a 1910 portrait of the actor Gabrielle Colonna-Romano and the 1886 Young Woman at the Well. They dropped two works while fleeing through the garden; the other two, on loan from the Musée d'Orsay and valued at €4m, disappeared. On 7 October, six suspects — five men and a woman — were arrested. One suspect led police to the missing paintings, hidden behind a wall of concrete blocks and plasterboard in his house near Marseille. The alleged ringleader, aged 29, was identified through DNA traces on the protective covering of a painting abandoned in the garden; officers had already been tracking his car over suspected drug offences. Surveillance then showed him meeting a known art criminal and visiting the Fondation Maeght in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, celebrated for its holdings of Matisse, Giacometti, Miró and Calder. Convinced another raid was being prepared, police arrested the whole group. Three suspects have records for drug dealing, counterfeit money and aggravated theft. A source close to the case described them as opportunist thieves with no clear plan for the loot. The recovered Renoirs are reported to be in rather good condition. Prosecutor Nicolas Bessone, who announced the recovery at a press conference, said the two Musée d'Orsay loans had survived their weeks behind the wall well enough to be restored.