QUICK TAKES - Jan. 14, 2009
Italian police have recovered 10 masterpieces that were stolen in 2004 from an ancient religious complex in Rome, officials said Tuesday.
Officers located the paintings in December. The works were wrapped in newspapers and hidden in the trailer of a suspected art smuggler, police said.
Investigators believe the man was about to take the works abroad to sell them, Carabinieri paramilitary police art squad chief Gen. Giovanni Nistri said. The suspect is under investigation for receiving stolen goods but is not believed to be behind the theft.
Nistri said the paintings are worth about $5.3 million and range from the 16th to the 19th centuries.
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