Spanish police recover stolen Francis Bacon paintings

Spanish police say they have recovered three of five paintings by Francis Bacon that were stolen in 2015.

The five works by the Irish-born British artist are estimated to be worth more than €25m ($29m).

The police provided no further details about the paintings, which were taken from a house in Madrid.

In January, three people were arrested in the Madrid areas in connection with the robbery – thought to be the biggest theft of contemporary art in Spain.

Francis Bacon, one of the most prominent artists of his era, died from a heart attack in Madrid in 1992.

Born in Dublin in 1909, he had no formal training as a painter.

In 2015, two of his self-portraits, which had been kept hidden in a private collection for many years, sold for a combined £30m at a sale at Sotheby’s in London.

A Bacon painting featuring his friend and fellow artist Lucian Freud, set a record in 2013, becoming the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction when it fetched $142m in New York.