Six original engravings by Pablo Picasso, stolen from a restaurant on the French Riviera a month ago, have been found intact after police raids on two apartments in the region. The works were discovered stacked in a bedroom, tucked behind a jumble of clothes and toolboxes, and seven people were arrested.

The theft took place in the early hours of October 2 at L'Amandier, a restaurant in the historic hill village of Mougins, a few kilometres north of Cannes. Security footage showed two masked and gloved men climbing onto the terrace and entering through a French door at around 2 a.m., while a third person waited in a getaway car. The restaurant's owner, an art collector, found the prints missing the following morning.

Investigators from the Cannes research brigade spent weeks on the case, using surveillance and wiretaps to track the suspects. On the morning of Tuesday, November 3, around 40 gendarmes moved in on two apartments in the Alpes-Maritimes department. The six engravings were recovered in perfect condition, and the seven suspects, aged between 18 and 30, were taken into custody: three are suspected of carrying out the burglary and four of assisting them.

Prosecutors put the damage at more than 100,000 euros, a figure that is difficult to fix precisely for works of art. The case also led investigators to a vehicle theft committed months earlier in the same department, suggesting the group was already known to police. The prints have been returned, closing a month-long hunt that began with a quiet break-in above the lights of Cannes.