A mysterious case in Limassol, Cyprus, has baffled  police, after a painting valued at six million euro was stolen from a 70 year old man’s house.

Sources from protothema.gr mention that the Cypriot police are investigating the way that the stolen painting was found in the possession of the Cypriot owner himself. The peculiar fact is that the painting was not insured, thus an insurance claim scam has no basis.

The painting’s history is yet to be established since Edgar Degas’ paintings are extremely rare and, so far, nobody had a clue that one of them could be found in Cyprus.

The information points to the fact that the owner was trying to sell the painting and had shown it to a Russian businessman, who is now being sought by police.

At the time of the theft, the owner of the painting was meeting with a lawyer to negotiate the sale.

Besides the 1870 painting depicting a ballerina, other items were also stolen from the 70 year-old’s home, including a safe which contained three golden watches, three golden pairs of opera glasses, three golden pairs of normal glasses and 20 gold cufflinks, worth 157,000 euro in total.

The Degas painting, at 61X47 cm, was not insured and was the work of Edgar Degas, one of the most important painters of the 19th century.