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Prosecutor seeks symbolic sentence over disputed Picassos

PARIS (AP) — A French prosecutor is not seeking prison terms for an electrician and his wife accused of hiding 271 stolen works by Pablo Picasso for decades.

The prosecutor, in closing arguments in a high-profile trial Thursday in southern France, sought a five-year suspended sentence for Pierre Le Guennec and his wife, Danielle.

The couple could be ordered to pay damages. The verdict comes March 20, according to Picasso family lawyer Jean-Jacques Neuer.

The Le Guennecs claim that Picasso or his wife gave them the lithographs, collages, paintings and drawings around 1970. Long kept in a garage, they have never been displayed publicly.

Heirs of Picasso and the prosecutor say the artist never gave away such a trove, which could be worth 60 million to 100 million euros ($68 to $113 million).

Police in Italy find shipment of coffee beans stuffed with cocaine

Police in Italy discovered cocaine stuffed inside individually hollowed-out coffee beans, after opening a parcel addressed to a fictional Mafia boss from a Hollywood movie. Investigators found 130 grams of cocaine in a 2 kilogram shipment of coffee beans that arrived at Milan's Malpensa Airport from Colombia, according to a statement from the Guardia di Finanza financial police.
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