The Central Archaeological Council announced that the stolen Rubens painting titled "The Hunt for the Caledonian Wild Boar", which was recovered by Greek police last September is now going to be repatriated. The 1618 oil sketch (28 x 52 cm) was stolen in 2001 from the Ghent Museum of Fine Arts and was recovered by police on Sept. 1, 2011 in an Athens seaside suburb. Two people, a former antique store owner and a female TV presenter, who attempted to sell the oil sketch to undercover police for 6 million euros, were arrested on money-laundering charges after the painting was found in the trunk of their car. The pair was not involved in the original heist. The painting depicts one of the most popular themes for the 17th century aristocracy and was bought in London in 1898 by the Belgian museum for 250,000 GBP. Flemish painter Peter Paul Rubens (1577-1640) was a prolific 17th century Flemish Baroque painter and proponent of an exuberant Baroque style emphasising color, movement and sensuality, and is known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects. (AMNA)
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