Spanish police recover Francis Bacon's stolen painting worth $5.4M

By Alyssa McMurtry

OVIEDO, Spain (AA) - Spanish police said on Thursday that they recovered a stolen painting by the Irish-British painter Francis Bacon worth €5 million ($5.4 million).

The painting was found in Madrid around nine years after it was first stolen from a private home in the Spanish capital.

This painting was one of five works lifted from the apartment of Spanish banker Jose Capelo, a close friend of the painter, in 2015.

Three paintings were recovered in 2017.

Now, this fourth painting to be recovered is a portrait of Capelo that was painted in 1989.

Although the investigation has been ongoing since 2015, police said in a statement that they caught the painting’s track last February after detaining two people charged with receiving the two remaining stolen Francis Bacon paintings.

In total, 16 people allegedly involved in the robbery have been arrested.

But the investigation remains open, as the remaining stolen painting remains on the black market.

Police said they are honing in on Spanish citizens who hold relations with organized crime groups from Eastern Europe.

Francis Bacon is known as one of the giants of contemporary art, known for his raw images focusing on brutality.

He died at the age of 82 of a heart attack while vacationing in Madrid.