A painting by Pablo Picasso, one of the two stolen art pieces that were carted away in an art heist carried out at the Greek National Gallery in 2012, has been found and a suspect arrested.

In an early morning heist that took only seven minutes to carry out in 2012, Picasso's 1939 painting, ‘Head of a Woman’, and a second painting, "Stammer Mill with Summer House”, by Dutch artist Piet Mondrian was stolen from the National Gallery and all efforts to recover them at the time proved futile.

The police had initially believed that the raid was carried out by two thieves but this has now turned out to be an inaccurate premise.

On Monday, June 28, the Greek police in Athens announced that acting on a tip, they have recovered the artworks and have arrested a 49-year-old who has already confessed to the crime. He also narrated to the police how he planned and orchestrated the heist nine years ago.

According to the police spokesperson at a press briefing on the development in Athens on Tuesday, the man told them he had spent six months planning the heist. He had spent days outside the gallery studying the movements of security guards and other staff, noting the times the guards took cigarette breaks. On the day of the heist, he had set off an alarm in another part of the gallery to divert attention while he broke into the ground floor of the museum and took the paintings from their frames.

Four paintings were taken by the thief that morning, although one painting was dropped on the floor, supposedly while the thief was escaping. The third artwork, a pen and ink piece by Italian artist Guglielmo Caccia, from the 16th Century, has been damaged and flushed down the toilet, according to the suspect in his confession to the police.

The Police said the suspect, described as a decorator, had hidden the paintings at his home for years and had no intention of selling them, as they were too distinct to be sold. However, he had recently moved them to a dried-up riverbed in Keratea, about 20 kilometers from Athens, wrapped in plastic sheets where they were eventually found in good condition by the police on Monday.

Speaking at the same press briefing, Greek Culture Minister Lina Mendoni said the National Gallery's "greatest wound has been healed". She explained the Picasso painting especially was impossible to sell or go on display because it has a hand-written dedication by the Spanish painter on the back that read, in French, "For the Greek people, a tribute by Picasso."

“That is why it was impossible for this painting not only to be sold but even to be exhibited anywhere as it would be immediately identifiable as being stolen from the National Gallery," she said.

Picasso had given it to Greece as a gift for their struggle against fascist and Nazi occupying forces during World War II.

The Mondrian painting is also a gift to the National Gallery, this time from a Greek owner who donated it to the art institution. 

Both paintings will be re-displayed at the gallery later this year.