RICCONE, Italy—Italian police have recovered a stolen Renoir nude painting with the aid of an art critic, reports the New York Times via Agence France-Presse. Art critic Vittorio Sgarbi was asked by a gallery owner in Riccone to appraise the work, along with a Manet forgery. Sgarbi reported his suspicions to the police, resulting in the arrest of the gallery owner and two other suspects.

The recovered oil painting was stolen from a family in Milan in 1975. The owner's daughter has recognized the recovered work as authentic because of mark on the canvas where she hit the painting with a ball in the early 1970s, ANSA news agency reported. The painting is currently valued at $730,000.