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Bogota, May 9 (EFE).- Colombian police recovered five paintings valued at nearly $1 million that were stolen more than three months ago from a colonial-era church in this capital, authorities said Tuesday.
They said that officers found the artworks, snatched Jan. 23 from Bogota's San Juan de Dios Church, at a house in the city's downtown area.
Police said they broke up a band of traffickers in stolen art who were seeking to sell the five paintings to European buyers.
The pieces depict various saints with the Holy Family and are classified as national treasures. Three of them date from the 17th century and one bears the signature of artist Baltasar de Figueroa, while the rest are anonymous.
Investigators said the break in the case came last Wednesday, when they detected the church watchman, Jose Egidio Garcia, in meetings with prospective foreign buyers for the stolen paintings.
Police said that the thieves tied up two janitors and cut the canvases from their frames when they robbed the church in January, then took the paintings to a rural safe house while they sought out buyers.
The theft was reported by church's pastor, the Rev. Alberto Forero Castro.
San Juan de Dios Church is itself a national monument. Completed in 1739, it once formed part of a complex that included a hospital run by the Order of the Hospitallers, but the rest of the buildings were torn down in 1945 to make room for urban renewal.
The church put up bars in front of its entrances and altars a few years ago to ward off thefts by the growing contingent of homeless people flocking to the sanctuary.
In a related matter, the head of the Colombian Institute of Anthropology and History asked the nation's attorney general to seek the return of six pre-Columbian relics from the Andean nation that are being offered at auction in New York by Sotheby's.
"These archeological pieces were presumably extracted illegally from Colombian sites, given that they are not reported in any excavation that was legitimately authorized by the competent authorities," said Maria Clemencia Ramirez.
The Culture Ministry noted that Bogota and Washington recently signed a memorandum of understanding pledging "to join forces to avoid the illegal trade in Colombia's cultural heritage." EFE
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