They stole a masterpiece from Renoir at an auction in Vienna: three suspects

A painting by the French impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir, which was to go on sale in an auction house in Vienna, was stolen a few days after its sale.

Dorotheum Auction House spokeswoman Doris Krumpl confirmed that the stolen work was "Gulf, Sea, Dead Cliffs", a petroleum landscape dated 1895 by Renoir, whose estimated exit price varied between $ 135,000 and $ 180,000.

The episode occurred last Monday on the second floor of the art exhibition and, according to the police investigation, the robbery was in the hands of "three men, currently unknown and apparently professional ".

"The men left the place for different sorties," said the Viennese police, who published the photos of the alleged thieves filmed by the security cameras of the building.

According to the spokesman of the Dorotheum house, considered the largest auction house in Central Europe, the building has many security measures. "Our art works are secure and no paintings have been stolen in recent decades," he said after the badault.

The painting was part of the auction that was made in the Austrian capital under the title "Clbadics of Modernism" but that the event did not have Renoir's name in the list of works for sale.