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A painting thought to be the stolen work of renowned Spanish artist Salvador Dali has been recovered by the Lebanese authorities.

Four people were arrested for allegedly trying to sell on the picture, known as Portrait of Mrs Reeves.

Police confiscated it last Friday after an investigation in the Cola neighbourhood of the capital, Beirut.

Art experts say the picture, if authentic, is a minor work from a series of high society portraits.

The piece was probably stolen from a neighbouring country, Lebanese police said.

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Art historian Lawrence Saphire told Lebanon's Daily Star newspaper that such pictures attributed to Dali usually sold "for a few hundred thousand dollars because they are not considered serious paintings".

He suggested it was one of the portraits Dali was commissioned to do of high society ladies when he was in America.

Dali expert Nicolas Descharnes, whose father Robert worked closely with Dali as his secretary, was quoted by the paper as saying Portrait of Mrs Reeves had been auctioned several times between 1986 and 1997.

Neither art expert would comment on whether the painting found in Lebanon was genuine.

Alex Rosenberg, chairperson of Salvador Dali research centre in New York. was quoted as saying many fakes had surfaced in the art market.