Spanish police have recovered two 17th-century paintings by the Sevillian artist Lucas Valdés that disappeared nearly a century ago after the 1929 Ibero-American Exposition in Seville, according to authorities. The works surfaced earlier this year when they were consigned for auction, prompting an investigation by Spain’s National Police and the country’s culture ministry. 

The two oval-shaped oil paintings on pine panel once belonged to the Hospital of the Venerable Priests in Seville, where they formed part of the decoration for the church’s main altarpiece. The paintings were loaned out for the 1929 exposition and never returned. Their whereabouts remained unknown for decades.