Monet Thief Sentenced to Five Years
By Associated Press | September 25, 2008
A French art thief who admitted to stealing and trying to sell paintings by Claude Monet and other famous artists will serve more than five years in American prison.
A federal judge in Miami imposed a 62-month sentence Wednesday on 56-year-old Bernard Jean Ternus.
He pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to steal paintings by Monet, fellow Impressionist Alfred Sisley, and 17th-century master Jan Brueghel the Elder.
The paintings were taken by masked, armed robbers in August 2007 from a museum in Nice, France, and have since been returned.
The FBI cracked the case by having undercover agents pose as potential buyers when Ternus tried to sell the paintings.
