Spanish police recover 34 stolen artworks

MADRID - All but one of the 35 objects stolen three weeks ago in one of Spain’s biggest thefts of modern art have been recovered, police said Monday.

The sculptures, lithographs and paintings, including one by Pablo Picasso, were discovered inside a van parked in an industrial area in Leganes near Madrid. No arrests have been made.

Most of the works, worth a total of five million euros (about $6.5 million), belonged to Spanish galleries.

They were returning from an exhibition in Germany when they were stolen from a lorry that had been parked inside a warehouse near Madrid with the keys still in the ignition.

The thieves do not appear to have been professionals, police said.

They clearly did not understand the value of their haul, selling one work by Basque sculptor Eduardo Chillida to a scrap metal dealer for only 30 euros, media reported.

The discovery of that statue helped police locate the rest of the works, which were found in good condition Saturday.