Belgian police have discovered two paintings by Marc Chagall and Pablo Picasso in the basement of a home in Antwerp, 14 years after they were stolen from an art collector in Tel Aviv.

The paintings – a cubist work by Picasso titled “Tête” and Chagall’s “L’homme en prière” which depicts a man praying - are valued together at $900,000 (£710,000) and were recovered in good condition, according to local authorities on Tuesday. The artworks were stolen in 2010 from an Israeli villa belonging to the Herzikovich family. $680,000 worth of jewellery was also stolen from a safe. Only the paintings have been recovered.

Belgian police finally had a breakthrough when, in late 2022, they were tipped off that an art dealer in the Walloon capital of Namur had put the paintings up for sale.

Authorities tracked the movements of their suspect, a 68-year-old Israeli luxury watcher dealer, for several months until last week, when federal police raided the man’s home, where they discovered a significant amount of money but neither of the stolen paintings.

“The checks and police resources implemented during 2023 made it possible to establish that the suspect was indeed in possession of the works sought and that he could have them at his home or at the home of one of his relations,” police officials told the French-language Belgian daily Le Soir.

“Although confessing to possessing the paintings, the suspect refused to communicate where he had stored them.”

Belgian police widened their search to Antwerp, where they searched a building formerly home to an art dealership that had been previously linked to stolen paintings. They discovered Picasso’s “Tête” and Chagall’s “L’homme en prière” in sealed wooden boxes in the building’s basement. Both were still in their original frames.

Police arrested the suspect and charged him with the receipt of the two paintings.