Monet thief receives 62-month jail sentence

updated 2:29 p.m. ET Sept. 24, 2008

MIAMI - A French art thief who admitted stealing and trying to sell paintings by Claude Monet and other famous artists will serve more than five years in U.S. prison.

A federal judge in Miami imposed a 62-month sentence Wednesday on 56-year-old Bernard Jean Ternus.

He pleaded guilty in July to conspiracy to steal paintings by Monet, fellow Impressionist George Sisley and 17th-century master Jan Brueghel the Elder.

The paintings were taken by masked, armed robbers in August 2007 from a museum in Nice, France, and have since been returned.

The FBI cracked the case by having undercover agents pose as potential buyers when Ternus tried to sell the paintings.

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