At a June 10 sale in London, Christie’s sold 14 portrait miniatures that had been stolen from a public gallery in the U.K. two years earlier, the Art Newspaper reports.

On August 31, 2006, thieves broke into Abbot Hall Art Gallery in Kendal, Cumbria, and stole 69 English portrait miniatures, which were on loan from a private collector whose family had collected the pieces a century earlier.

At the time, the theft was not noted in the press, nor reported to the Art Loss Register. It was, however, registered with Trace, another computerized database of stolen art, but without images.

“This catalog, like all our catalogs, was sent to both the Art Loss Register and Trace, but the stolen items were not picked up,” said a Christie’s spokesperson. A Trace spokesperson pointed toward the absence of images from Abbot Hall to explain the difficulties.

Fourteen of the 69 stolen miniatures were offered at Christie’s, which did not learn that the pieces were stolen until after the sale. The list includes works by John Smart, Richard Cosway, and Horace Hone. According to the Art Newspaper, it is believed that the consignor acquired and offered the pieces in good faith and that most of the remaining 55 are with the consignor.

The collection had been insured before the Abbot Hall display, and the private collector will likely return the insurance payment in exchange for the recovered works.