Paintings Stolen in Australia and Recovered within Hours

DARWIN, Australia—Seven paintings were stolen from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory today, but the works were found in the bushland only hours later, News.com.au reports. The thieves, a 37-year-old man and an accomplice, are believed to have been drunk at the time of the robbery. They used a rock to smash one of the museum's back windows, and by the time the police arrived, the men had disappeared with six Aboriginal paintings from the western desert and one central Australian watercolor.

The police later arrested a 37-year-old homeless man at a nearby bus stop who took them to the site where the paintings had been left. Museum director Anna Malgorzewicz said the works "have been stressed, they are slightly soiled, but they are in very good condition."