VIDEO: Stolen Degas painting Les Choristes found on a bus
Stolen Degas painting Les Choristes found on a bus
23 February 2018
PHOTO RMN / HERVÉ LEWANDOWSKI
Les Choristes, meaning The Chorus, is 32cm (13 in) wide
A Degas painting stolen from a Marseille museum in 2009 has been found on a bus near Paris.
The French culture minister, Françoise Nyssen, said authorities discovered the artwork in the luggage compartment of the bus that was stopped in a motorway service station.
Experts confirmed it was Les Choristes, a pastel painting said to be worth 800,000 euros (£700,000).
None of the passengers admitted to owning the painting.
Customs officials discovered the painting inside a suitcase. Nobody has been arrested.
It was found during a random search, according to Reuters news agency.
The work was stolen from Marseille's Musée Cantini in 2009. It had been on loan from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris.
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Who was Edgar Degas?
Hilaire-Germain-Edgar De Gas, later known as Edgar Degas, was born in Paris in 1834.
He was the son of a Creole mother from New Orleans, Louisiana, and a French father who worked as a banker.
He is famous for his paintings, sculptures and prints, particularly those of dancers.
Degas is credited as one of the founders of Impressionism, an art movement focused on depicting reality in that instant - with a focus on bright colours and the effects of light.
He died in 1917.
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