Degas Painting, Stolen in 2009, Is Found on Bus Near Paris.
PARIS — A little over eight years ago, French investigators were stumped after a small painting by the Impressionist master Edgar Degas was stolen from a museum in the Mediterranean port city of Marseille.
The painting, a colorful pastel from 1877 depicting singers on a theater stage, appeared to have been unscrewed from a wall, but there was no sign of a break-in. The police briefly detained a night watchman, but then released him.
Years went by. The painting, titled “The Chorus Singers” and thought to be worth nearly $1 million, was nowhere to be found.
Until now.
In a surprising twist, the French authorities confirmed on Friday that the painting had been recovered on Feb. 16 by customs officers randomly searching the luggage compartment of a bus at a highway stop in Ferrières-en-Brie, about 18 miles east of Paris.
The officers found the signed painting in a suitcase, but none of the passengers on the bus claimed it as their own. A customs spokesman said on Friday that the search had not resulted from a tip, and that authorities did not initially know if the work was authentic.'>>>
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/02/23/world/europe/degas-painting-bus.html?
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