A man and woman have pleaded guilty to charges of trying to sell a stolen painting by French master Henri Matisse nearly 10 years after it went missing from a Venezuelan museum, authorities said.
The painting is worth $3 million.
FBI undercover agents arrested Pedro Antonio Marcuello Guzman, 46, of Miami, Florida, and Maria Martha Elisa Ornelas Lazo, 50, of Mexico City, Mexico, during a sting operation at a Miami Beach hotel in July.
According to officials, Mar-cuello negotiated the sale of the painting, a 1925 work known as Odalisque in Red Pants (Odalisque à la culotte rouge), for $740,000 with undercover agents posing as buyers and then arranged for the painting to be flown from Mexico to Miami by Ornelas.
Both were arrested after they handed over the painting.
The two entered their guilty pleas to charges of conspiracy to transport and sell stolen property this week, the U.S. Attorney's Office in Miami said.
Marcuello faces up to 10 years in prison, while Ornela could receive a maximum sentence of five years.
The painting had been missing from the Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art for years.
