Frenchman Arrested for Attempting to Sell Works Stolen from Nice Museum

By ARTINFO

Published: June 30, 2008

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COOPER CITY, Fla.—A French citizen living in Florida has been charged with attempting to sell four works stolen at gunpoint from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice, France, last year: Monet's Cliffs Near Dieppe, Alfred Sisley's The Lane of Poplars at Moret, and Jan Brueghel the Elder's Allegory of Water and Allegory of Earth.

According to an indictment filed in Miami federal court, Bernard Jean Ternus, 55, negotiated the sale of the works for €3 million ($4.8 million), well below the works' market prices. The indictment says Ternus worked with accomplices from August 2007 to secure the deal. His alleged associates were arrested by French National Police in Southern France on June 4, and the paintings were recovered by police in Marseille. Ternus was arrested in his home in Cooper City, Florida, by agents of the FBI and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement on June 4 and is in custody.

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