Nice, France — Two paintings by French master Pierre-Auguste Renoir have been recovered a month after they were stolen from a museum in southern France, the town's mayor said Friday.

In September, thieves broke into the museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer and managed to escape with two works by the French impressionist painter, abandoning two others as they fled.

"These two paintings are not simply works of art. They are part of our city's history," said Bryan Masson, the mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer. "Knowing they have been recovered is an immense relief."

There has not yet been any statement from the police.

The suspects cut through a fence to enter the museum's tree-lined grounds, smashed a window to get inside, and used an electric saw to cut through the frame mountings, Masson said at the time of the robbery in early September.

A source close to the probe told AFP earlier this week that police had arrested five people as part of the investigation.

The Renoir Museum lies a half-hour drive from the southern city of Nice, in Renoir's last home before he died aged 78 in 1919.

The heist was the latest in a string of such robberies in France including the daylight theft last year of crown jewelry valued at around $100 million from the Louvre in Paris.

In:

• Art
• Grand Theft
• France