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posted by Fnord666 on Monday February 26 2018, @02:33AM   Printer-friendly
from the do-you-have-anything-to-declare? dept.

https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/02/24/588537379/customs-agents-search-a-bus-near-paris-and-discover-a-stolen-degas-painting

In December 2009, a small painting by Edgar Degas was quietly stolen from the Cantini museum in Marseille, France. Museum staff discovered Les Choristes was missing when they arrived in the morning, and the prosecutor suggested it could be an inside job because the painting had been unscrewed from the wall and there was no evidence of a break-in. An investigation was launched, but nine years went by and the 1877 painting — worth an estimated $1 million — wasn't seen again.

That was until last Friday, when French customs agents happened to check a bus parked at a highway stop about 18 miles east of Paris. The officers opened a suitcase in the luggage compartment, and there it was: vibrant pastels in red, orange, and yellow, depicting a chorus from the opera Don Juan. In the lower left hand corner: Degas' signature. The agents asked the bus passengers who owned the suitcase. No one claimed it.


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  • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday February 26 2018, @06:21PM

    by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday February 26 2018, @06:21PM (#644066) Journal

    In the United States it is very doubtful that the average customs agent would have recognized this as valuable

    I doubt we'd ever count on the average US customs agent to do brain surgery or design bridges either. What of it? Are you implying that the average French customs agent happens to be an expert on European art?