Norwegian police last night recovered three paintings by one of the country's greatest artists, Edvard Munch, only a day after they were stolen.
They were recovered in Oslo and nine people have been arrested.
The art works were stolen from a hotel in southeastern Norway on Sunday.
A painting called 'The Blue Dress' dating from 1915, and two lithographs, a self-portrait of Munch and a portrait of Swedish author and playwright August Strindberg, were snatched off the dining-room wall.
The two lithographs are said to be worth about €120,000. The painting could be worth much more, according to experts.
A hotel employee disturbed two men as they were leaving the dining room of the Refnes Gods hotel, on Jeloeya island outside Moss, with the paintings under their arms. They dropped one, but ran off with the other three.
Police cannot yet say whether the incident is connected to last year's theft of Munch's most famous painting, The Scream, which remains missing.
