The Hague, Netherlands: Dutch police have recovered eight valuable paintings, including works by Renoir and Pissaro, 22 years after they were stolen from a gallery.
Prosecutors said in a statement three suspects have been arrested - a 45-year-old German man who lives in Dubai, his 62-year-old mother and a 66-year-old man. All three suspects, whose identities were not released, are due to appear in court today.
Some of the paintings, which were stolen from the Noortman gallery in the southern city of Maastricht in 1987, were badly damaged by being folded, the Dutch National Prosecutor's Office said in a statement posted on its website on Saturday.
"An expert will establish their value," the statement said. The gallery could not be reached for comment yesterday.
Prosecutors said police tracked down the works after an attempt was made to sell them to the insurance company that paid out five million Dutch guilders at the time, for the paintings after the theft. Netherlands no longer uses the guilder as official tender.
Prosecutors said they are investigating where the paintings had been since their disappearance.
Six were found in the southern town of Valkenburg and two more in the nearby village of Walem, where one of the suspects lives.
The works were by David Teniers, Willem van de Velde, Jan Brueghel the Younger, Eva Gonzales, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Paul Desire Trouillebert.
