Paris cabbie returns US$1.6m artwork forgotten in boot of his taxi

An artwork worth 1.5 million euros (US$1.64 million) that a Paris art dealer left in a taxi’s boot has been handed over by the cab’s driver, police said on Tuesday.

The dealer, who was not identified by the police, had filed a complaint for theft after he “forgot” about the work after hailing the cab to meet a collector last Thursday.

Unable to locate the taxi, he filed his complaint Saturday.

“The taxi has been found, he brought back the painting,” a police source said.

The artwork is by Argentina-born Italian sculptor and painter Lucio Fontana (1899 - 1968), entitled Concetto spaziale (Spatial concept), with an estimated value of 1.5 million euros, police said.

The work is one of a series of abstracts Fontana made featuring the piercing of the canvas to create an actual dimension of space and using light.