A painting by Henri Matisse stolen over a decade ago in Caracas has been returned to the Venezuelan State by US government representatives on July 7. The work in question, Odalisque in Red Pants, was stolen from the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo in Caracas in 2000. It will be presented to a Venezuelan representative of the Public Prosecutor's Office who has been entrusted with coordinating the repatriation of the work after a Venezuelan commission certified its authenticity in August of 2013. The certification of the work was performed by Wanda de Guebriant, director of the Matisse Archives in Paris. Painted in 1925 and appraised at 3 million USD, the work was recovered when a couple attempted to sell it to undercover FBI agents in a Miami Beach hotel in July of 2012. The US Department of State approached Venezuelan authorities to return the painting, following the conclusion—in early 2013—of the trial of 46-year-old Cuban born Marcuello Guzmán and 51-year-old Mexican born María Ornelas-Lazo, who were respectively sentenced to 33 and 21 months in prison for attempting to sell the stolen painting.