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Parisian taxi driver returns €1.5 million painting that was accidentally left in his cab

Concetto Spaziale by Italian painter Lucio Fontana is one of the 20th century’s most well-known artistic works.

Contemporary art sales at Sotheby's - London Employees hang Lucio Fontana's 'Concetto Spaziale, Attese, at Sotheby's in London in January 2015 Anthony Devlin Anthony Devlin

A PAINTING WORTH €1.5 million that a Paris art dealer left in a taxi’s boot has been handed over by the cab’s driver, according to French police.

The dealer, who was not identified by the police, had filed a complaint for theft after he “forgot” about the work after hailing the cab to meet a collector on Thursday 27 April.

Unable to locate the taxi, he filed his complaint last Saturday.

“The taxi has been found, he brought back the painting,” a police source said today.

The artwork is by Argentina-born Italian sculptor and painter Lucio Fontana (1899 – 1968), entitled “Concetto Spaziale” (Spatial Concept), with an estimated value of €1.5 million, police said.

The work is one of a series of abstracts Fontana made featuring the piercing of the canvas to create an actual dimension of space and using light.

He became known for founding the spatialist movement, according to the Tate museum website.

© – AFP, 2017

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