The authorities in the Netherlands say they have recovered eight paintings by artists including Renoir and Pissaro, that had been missing for more than 20 years.
The paintings, from the 17th and 19th centuries, disappeared from a gallery in Maastricht in 1987. They were found after police received information that the works were being offered for sale.
The prosecuting authority said "some of the art works had been folded and were seriously damaged".
Police arrested a German man aged 45, resident in Dubai, his 62-year-old Belgian mother and a man from Walem aged 66. They will appear before a court on Monday.
The prosecuting authority said those accused were "trying to sell the art works to the insurance company that had paid out 2.27 million euros after they went missing".
The modern-day value of the paintings is yet to be determined.
The works were by 17th century painters David Teniers (Flemish), Willem van de Velde and Jan Brueghel de Jonge (both Dutch), as well as 19th century French artists Eva Gonzales, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro and Paul Desire Trouillebert.
