$10M artworks stolen in 2008 recovered in L.A.

Nine paintings valued at $10 million that were stolen from a real estate investor six years ago, including works by Marc Chagall and Diego Rivera, have been recovered, the Los Angeles Times reports.

The August 2008 multimillion-dollar heist involved a dozen paintings, one of the largest thefts of art in Los Angeles history. Three paintings were still missing as of Dec. 1.

Investigators got a break three months ago when an LAPD detective was tipped off to a man in Europe who was seeking buyers for the stolen art.

Raul Espinoza, 45, was arrested in a West Hollywood hotel in October during an undercover operation set up by the LAPD and the FBI. He tried to sell the nine works for $700,000 cash, the Timesreports, citing court documents.

He has pleaded not guilty to one count of receiving stolen property and is being held on $5 million bail.

The Saturday morning theft occurred while the unidentified elderly investor and his wife were in the bedroom of their Encino home and the housekeeper was out shopping. The thief or thieves entered through an unlocked service door, snatching the art off the walls, including Chagall's Les Paysans and Rivera's 1938 watercolor Mexican Peasant. The anti-theft system did not activate.

Other works included Arshile Gorky's Cubist Still Life (1928-1929; Emil Nolde's Figur mit Hund (1912); Lyonel Feininger's Fin de Séance (1910); Chaim Soutine's La Vieille Dame au Chien (1919) and La Femme en Rouge (1926); Kees van Dongen's Alicia Alanova (1933); and Hans Hofmann's Untitled (known as "Blue Bottle") (1947).

Each was valued at at least six figures, with some more than $1 million, a gallerist told the Times in 2008. A $200,000 reward was offered.

The owner had assembled the collection over more than 50 years, according to Rivera Experts.