NICE.- French police have recuperated two paintings made by French impressionists Claude Monet, Alfred Sisley and two others by Flemish artist Jan Brueghel. The paintings were stolen last year from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice.

The four paintings were "Cliffs near Dieppe" by Monet and Sisley's "Lane of poplars at Moret-sur-Loing," as well as "Allegory of Water" and "Allegory of Earth" by Brueghel.

The paintings from the Museum of Fine Arts in Nice were discovered in a utility vehicle parked in the port city of Marseille, the prosecutor's office said to the Associated Press.

The four works were stolen from the Beaux-Arts Jules Cheret museum in Nice last August by a group of men on a Sunday afternoon, when entry was free for the public, the report said.

After a police surveillance operation lasting several weeks, several people were arrested trying to sell the stolen art.

The Monet and Sisley had vanished from the museum's walls before. In 1998, the curator at the time, Jean Forneris, staged a theft in which masked, armed men took him "hostage" and forced him to take them to the museum. The men overpowered guards and tied up the staff members before fleeing with the paintings - in the curator's car.

He soon confessed, and the paintings were found in a boat docked in Nice harbour. He was convicted and served 18 months in prison. The Sisley is on its third theft. It was also stolen in 1978 while on loan at an exhibit in Marseille.