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'A Fisherman's Daughter' Returned To Rightful Owner

STEVE INSKEEP, HOST:

A long lost painting is also fine. It's been returned to its rightful owners. The work is by a French artist, Jules Breton. It's a portrait of a young peasant woman in a white kerchief, leaning against a boulder on a rocky beach, mending a net.

The German army stole the canvas from a museum in northern France during World War I. Nobody knows what happened after that. The painting was missing until last year, when it was spotted in a New York gallery. Yesterday, U.S. Customs officials handed the work over to the French ambassador.

"A Fisherman's Daughter," the name of the painting, is valued around $150,000. A Justice Department attorney who aided the recovery was pleased. Returning looted art, he said, is one of the few ways to redress the awful legacy of war. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.