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An alabaster sculpture of John the Baptist stolen from a Bordeaux church 22 years ago was on Thursday being returned to authorities in the western port following a lengthy hunt.
The sculpture, part of a 15th-century altarpiece in the Saint Michel basilica, was to be returned to Bordeaux's deputy mayor Hugues Martin on behalf of an unwitting private collector.
The 60-centimetre high statue, carved by the English Nottingham School of Alabasterers, will be put on display with two other works from the altarpiece stolen at the same time and recovered 12 years ago.
The relief and six other panels were stolen in 1984 by persons unknown, who then subsituted plaster copies to cover up the theft, said historic monuments curator Marie-Anne Sire.
The theft was only discovered by chance in 1993 when the widow of a Paris antiques dealer donated one of the panels to the state.
A curator at the Louvre identitied it as one of the panels from the altarpiece which had been designated an historic monument in 1846, and an inquiry revealed the altarpiece displayed in the church was in fact a fake.
A hunt was launched in 1994 for the missing work of art, and a second panel was found at the antiques' dealers business. The other five panels however after changing hands several times had been legally exported as it was not known they were stolen.
Four had been bought in 1985 by a US collector who then sold them on to a New York gallery, while the fifth, the statue of John the Baptist, was bought by a Swiss diplomat who finally agreed to return it.
Bordeaux is now hoping to persuade the current owner of the four missing panels in the United States to return them.
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AFPEntertainment-arts-France
AFP 021525 GMT 03 06
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