Two thieves broke into a museum in France on Tuesday.

The museum is the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer.

They stole four paintings by Pierre-Auguste Renoir.

They cut through a fence.

Then they went in through a window.

The theft took less than three minutes.

The thieves ran away.

They left two paintings in the museum garden.

Two paintings are missing now.

One is "Portrait of Madame Colonna Romano."

The other is "Young Woman at the Well."

Two paintings are safe.

They are "Portrait of Madame Pichon" and "Coco Reading."

The mayor is Bryan Masson.

He said the four works cost about 9 million euros.

That is about $10.5 million.

The museum is in Renoir's old home.

He lived there until he died in 1919.

The alarm went off at 5:48 a.m.

Police came five minutes later.

The mayor said police were quick.

So the thieves had to run away.

The Marseille prosecutor started an investigation.

It is about theft by an organized gang.

Two of the stolen works have a hard past.

Officials think Nazis took "Young Woman at the Well" in World War II.

Someone found it again in 1949.

A German officer gave "Coco Reading" to a soldier at the end of the war.

Germany gave it back to France in 1994.

James Ratcliffe is an art theft expert.

He said museums do not have enough money.

This is a big problem for small museums.

He said the recent Louvre theft showed criminals something.

It showed them that museums are easy targets.

Ratcliffe said the thieves cannot sell the Renoirs.

It is almost impossible.

They cannot go to art dealers with stolen works.