Stolen Czanne recovered by Serbian police

A painting recovered by Serbian police overnight is indeed a work by Paul Czanne stolen in a daring 2008 heist, Swiss prosecutors said Thursday.

Art experts at the E.G. Buehrle Foundation confirmed that the painting in question is the French impressionist master's painting The Boy in the Red Waistcoat.

It was stolen along with three other paintingsClaude Monet's Poppy FieldNear Vetheuil, Vincent van Gogh's Blooming Chestnut Branches and Edgar Degas' Ludovic Lepic and his Daughter from the Zurich-based foundation's private collection in February 2008.

Early Thursday, Serbian police revealed that officers had seized a stolen painting and arrested three people in connection with the robbery following raids in Belgrade and the city of Cacak.

Police from several European countries participated in the operation, Serbian officials said.

At the time, the 2008 theftof a quartet of immensely valuable, 19th century oil paintings was described as "a spectacular art robbery."

Three masked and armedmen burst into the gated Zurich villa housing late industrialist Emil Buehrle's collection ofimpressionist and post-impressionist artwork on a Sunday, just a half-hour before the facility was slated to close, and grabbed the first four paintings they saw.

They escaped in a white car and witnesses reported that the suspects spoke German with a Slavic accent.

The robberyone of the biggest European art thefts at the time and the second that week in Switzerlandwas shocking because of the prominenceand value of the paintings taken. In total, the canvases were estimated to be worth 180 million Swiss francs (about $163 million Cdn, at the time).

The Monet and van Gogh were recovered, undamaged, in a parked car at a Zurich hospital shortly after the theft.

The Degas remains missing.