Lucas Cranach (1472-1553) Suffer the Little Children to Come Unto Me.REUTERS
Reuters North American News Service. Mar 11, 2009 17:20 EDT
OSLO, March 11 (Reuters) - Norwegian police have recovered a stolen 16th century painting by the German Renaissance master Lucas Cranach the Elder and arrested one man, police said on Wednesday.
The painting, estimated by experts to be worth $2 million to $3 million, was stolen in the early hours of Sunday from a church at Larvik, south of Oslo.
Police inspector Magnar Pedersen told NRK television news the painting appeared to be undamaged except for the frame, but experts had not yet examined it.
Police detained a man in his 50s at his home in Larvik and found the painting stashed in a truck in a neighbouring county, but they declined to give further details. Pedersen said more arrests could be made.
The painting, "Suffer the little children to come unto me", shows Christ in a blue robe holding two infants in his lap and surrounded by several women with small children and a few men.
It had hung in the Larvik church since it was built in 1677.
Cranach the Elder (1472-1553) ranks among the most significant German Renaissance painters, along with masters such as Albrecht Durer.
In 2004, two masked men walked into the Munch Museum in Oslo and stole Edvard Munch's painting "The Scream" from the wall in front of terrified tourists. That painting was recovered two years later.
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