Investigators in Paris recovered two Picasso paintings and a drawing stolen from the home of the artist's granddaughter in an overnight robbery.
Police took three people into custody.
Two suspects were carrying the rolled-up canvases when police closed in as they were expected to try to sell the masterpieces, a police spokesman said.
The two paintings — one of Pablo Picasso's daughter Maya, the other of his second wife Jacqueline — are worth more than £30 million.
Burglars had stolen them and the drawing from the luxurious Left Bank apartment of Diana Widmaier- Picasso, Maya Picasso's daughter, in February.
Investigators were tipped off about a suspect by an art dealer.
Based on the tip, two different police bureaux — one that specialises in armed thefts and another in the trafficking of cultural goods — launched a constant surveillance of the main suspect.
After more than a month, investigators were convinced the suspect was preparing to try to sell the works.
They took him and an accomplice into custody as they were transporting the rolled-up Picassos, the police official said.
A third person was also taken into custody. Police released no further details.
Burglars slipped into Widmaier-Picasso's apartment on February 26 or 27.
At the time, police said they believed the thieves cut the edges of one painting, Maya and the Doll, to take it out of its frame.
It was not immediately clear if the recovered works had suffered any damage.
Maya and the Doll, which shows Widmaier-Picasso's mother as a young girl in pigtails, is painted in a skewed Cubist perspective.
Another version of the painting hangs in the Picasso Museum in Paris. The other recovered painting, Portrait of Jacqueline, depicts Picasso's second wife, Jacqueline Roque.
PA