Stolen Renoir painting recovered

Italian police said they recovered a painting by Impressionist master Pierre-Auguste Renoir, stolen in Milan in 1975 from a private collector.

Police arrested three people in a northern Italian town near the border with Austria on suspicion of trafficking in stolen art works.

The small oil, featuring the back of a naked woman turning her head towards the viewer, has a commercial value of about 500,000 euros and was painted by Renoir in his later years, police said.

"It was stolen in 1975 along with other paintings from a restoration lab where the owner, who has since died, had taken it for minor repairs," police officer Raffaele Mancino told reporters.

Police said the painting was found after the suspects contacted an Italian art critic for an appraisal. The critic, suspecting the oil may have been stolen, notified the police.

A second painting, a still life with a forged Edouard Manet signature, was also recovered.