Frenchman pleads guilty in Florida to art theft

MIAMI (Reuters) - A Frenchman pleaded guilty in a U.S. court on Thursday to charges of conspiring to transport artwork stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Nice, including a painting by French impressionist Claude Monet.

The defendant, Bernard Jean Ternus, lived in the Fort Lauderdale suburb of Cooper City, Florida, and admitted he and his co-conspirators tried to broker the sale of the stolen paintings to undercover agents from the FBI and French National Police.

Armed robbers stole the works from the Musee des Beaux-Arts in Nice in August 2007. They got away with Monet's "Cliffs Near Dieppe," "The Lane of Poplars at Moret" by English impressionist Alfred Sisley, and two works by Flemish artist Jan Brueghel the Elder -- "Allegory of Water" and "Allegory of Earth."

Court documents said Ternus met several times with the undercover agents in Florida and Spain and negotiated to sell all four paintings for 3 million euros, or about $4.7 million.

Ten people involved in the theft were arrested during a sting operation in June in southern France and police recovered all four paintings.

Ternus also pleaded guilty to committing visa fraud by falsely stating he had no criminal history. In fact he had been arrested several times in France and convicted on charges of assault with a deadly weapon.

He faces up to five years in prison but could lighten his sentence as part of an agreement to cooperate with investigators.

"By working together with our international law enforcement partners, the works of these grand masters are once again in the hands of their legitimate caretakers," said Acting Assistant U.S. Attorney General Matthew Friedrich. "The theft and sale of stolen art has unfortunately become part of the portfolio of crimes international organized criminals will use to fund their illegal activities."

(Editing by Patricia Zengerle)