04 June 2008 - 22H38

Priceless paintings recovered by French police
Two Bruegels, one Monet and a Sisley, robbed last year in the French city of Nice, have been found in Marseille. The recovery of these priceless paintings have also led to the arrest of some 10 people in southern France.

Two Bruegels, a Sisley and a Monet snatched from a French Riviera museum last year were recovered Wednesday in a major police operation, French judicial sources said.

The sources said the paintings were found in the Mediterranean port of Marseille and that around 10 people were arrested in the city and surrounding region, in an operation that lasted all day Wednesday.

Several people were arrested trying to sell the stolen works, after a police surveillance operation of several weeks. Police were questioning the suspects and carrying out further searches Wednesday evening.

The four priceless works were robbed in a brazen afternoon heist in Nice last August by a group of men who entered the Beaux-Arts Jules Cheret museum on a Sunday afternoon, when entry was free for the public.

The oil paintings include "Falaises pres de Dieppe," (Cliffs near Dieppe) painted by Monet in 1897 and Sisley's "Allee de peupliers de Moret" (The lane of poplars at Moret) dating back to 1980.

The two stolen works of Jan Breugel, a Flemish Baroque era painter who lived between 1568 and 1625, were "Allegorie de l'eau" (Allegory of Water) and "Allegorie de la terre" (Allegory of Earth).

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