ROME — Paintings by the French masters Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse were stolen from a museum near Parma in a brazen nighttime heist, Italian authorities said Monday.

The Magnani Rocca Foundation museum in the northern town of Traversetolo described the March 22 theft as a highly professional operation, executed in less than three minutes, Italian media reported. Four masked men are believed to have forced their way through an entry gate, grabbed the paintings and escaped by climbing a fence, authorities told The Washington Post.