French customs police have found a painting by 19th century master Edgar Degas that was stolen nine years ago from a museum in Marseille on a bus near Paris, the government said on Friday.
French Culture Minister Francoise Nyssen said customs officials found the pastel - thought to be worth about 800,000 euros ($1.3 million) - in the luggage compartment of a bus stopped in a motorway layby.
Degas' 1877 painting Les Choristes, or The Chorus Singers, is done in pastels and depicts a line of men singing in the opera, Don Juan.
The police were making random checks on a bus at a highway rest area about 30 kilometres east of Paris on 16 February when they found it.
None of the passengers on the bus admitted to owning the painting, Ms Nyssen added.
Experts from the Musee d'Orsay confirmed its authenticity, the culture and budget ministers said in a statement.
The statement gave no information about why the painting was on the bus or who left it there.
The French artist is most famous for his paintings and sculptures of dancers and is often associated with the Impressionist movement.
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