[MSN] Bamberg - Four old-master paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) have been discovered in a German antique dealership, 27 years after thieves ripped them from a church in communist-run East Germany.

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Old masters found 27 years after theft 

    July 26 2007 at 02:39AM  
 
Bamberg - Four old-master paintings by Lucas Cranach the Elder (1472-1553)
have been discovered in a German antique dealership, 27 years after thieves
ripped them from a church in communist-run East Germany.

The fold-out pictures on wood, each about one-metre tall, apparently depict
the birth of Saint John the Baptist.

The set would be worth several hundred thousand euros, art experts said. The
thieves who took the paintings from the Lutheran church at Klieken near
Wittenberg in 1980 were never caught.

The dealer had bought the colourful unsigned paintings on wood without
suspecting they were stolen or by Cranach, the police said. An art expert
noticed them on July 18 while shopping.

According to art professors consulted by detectives in Bamberg, only four or
five experts in Germany could recognise Cranach's full range of work, so the
dealer's ignorance was not surprising. - Sapa-dpa

http://www.iol.co.za/