Stolen '$100 million' Caravaggio recovered by police
German police have recovered a 400-year-old painting attributed to Italian master Caravaggio worth tens of millions of pounds stolen two years ago from a museum in Ukraine.
In a joint operation on Friday involving German and Ukrainian authorities, police arrested four suspected members of an international band of art thieves as they attempted to sell the stolen painting in Berlin.
Police in Ukraine also arrested 20 further suspects thought involved with the gang.
Experts in Germany have authenticated the masterpiece The Taking of Christ, painted around 1602, as the work stolen from a museum in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa in July 2008.
"The Ukrainian authorities have valued the painting in the tens of millions," the German police statement said.
Some experts cited have said the painting could fetch up to $100 million (£66 million) on the black market.
The source of the work, often also known as the Judas Kiss, has been in doubt in the past....
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In a joint operation on Friday involving German and Ukrainian authorities, police arrested four suspected members of an international band of art thieves as they attempted to sell the stolen painting in Berlin.
Police in Ukraine also arrested 20 further suspects thought involved with the gang.
Experts in Germany have authenticated the masterpiece The Taking of Christ, painted around 1602, as the work stolen from a museum in the southern Ukrainian city of Odessa in July 2008.
"The Ukrainian authorities have valued the painting in the tens of millions," the German police statement said.
Some experts cited have said the painting could fetch up to $100 million (£66 million) on the black market.
The source of the work, often also known as the Judas Kiss, has been in doubt in the past....