Stolen £700,000 Degas painting found on a bus near Paris
Edgar Degas was a leading Impressionist. CREDIT: HERVE LEWANDOWSKI/AFP/GETTY IMAGES)
French customs officers making a random check on a bus at a motorway layby found a painting by 19th century Impressionist master Edgar Degas that was stolen nine years ago from a museum in Marseille.
The 1877 painting Les Choristes, or The Chorus Singers and sometimes called The Extras, was found in a suitcase in the vehicle’s luggage compartment during a stopover in Marne-la-Vallée to the east of Paris.
Its value is estimated at €800,000 (£700,000).
But when the officers asked passengers who the case belonged to, they were met with a stony silence, the culture ministry said in a statement.
“Its disappearance represented a heavy loss to the French impressionist heritage,” said Culture Minister Françoise Nyssen, who issued a statement saying she was delighted at “the happy rediscovery of a precious work.”