Italian police on Friday recovered three statues belonging to Colombian artist Fernando Botero, Latin America's most famous living artist, that were stolen from the Tuscan town of Pietrasanta last year.
The statues were found hidden in a car in the suburbs of Verona, and police believe they would soon have been smuggled out of the country.
Two brothers were arrested during the operation.
The three statues belonged to a group of seven, worth a total of four million euros, that were stolen from Botero's Pietrasanta workshop in October after thieves used a crowbar to enter the building.
Police said the theft had all the hallmarks of a made-to-order robbery.
The small 50x70-centimetre statues had already been sold before the theft and were due to go on show in Monte Carlo a few days later.
The owner of the Pietrasanta foundry that houses Botero's workshop said the artist, who is currently in Paris, had expressed his satisfaction with the police operation.
''He telephoned us this morning and is very happy,'' he said. ''He hopes the police can recover the other four''.
Shortly after the theft Botero threatened to leave Pietrasanta - an international centre for bronze and marble production and a haven for artists - where he has owned a house for 25 years.
Botero spends the summer months in the town with his family and is considered one of its most famous residents.
He gave the town a sculpture entitled The Roman Soldier which stands in a central square.
Botero, 75, rose to artistic fame thanks to his distinctive sculptures and brightly coloured paintings of smooth, rotund people and animals.
This style made him one of the world's most commercially successful artists and his 'fat people' can be seen in countless museum collections around the world.
