PUTRAJAYA, May 6 — The Malaysian Anti-Corruption Commission is seeking to recover seven more high-value artworks bought using siphoned 1MDB funds by the end of the year.

Outgoing MACC chief Tan Sri Azam Baki said the recovered assets would first be kept at MACC headquarters here, pending a decision by the Ministry of Finance on whether they should be retained or auctioned.

“Overall, MACC has identified a total of 12 artworks to be repatriated to Malaysia,” he said.

“Of these, four have been successfully returned, while another eight are currently in various stages of recovery…we hope to get it possibly by the end of the year.”

The seven artworks still under recovery are valued at an estimated US$1.7 million, or approximately RM6.9 million.

The eighth remaining recovery involves proceeds from the sale of Claude Monet’s Vétheuil au Soleil, which was sold in Switzerland for about RM114 million.

Among the artworks still in the process of being returned are paintings by Henri Matisse valued at US$52,500, Alexander Calder valued at US$125,000, Pablo Picasso valued at US$1.265 million, William H. Bailey valued at US$66,250, and Raoul Dufy valued at US$40,000.

The value of the other two artworks — by the popular surrealist Salvador Dalí and post-impressionist Gustave Loiseau — is still under verification.

The total value of the artworks recovered as part of the broader 1MDB asset recovery push is estimated at over RM127 million.

Azam thanked US authorities who were present at today’s press conference, saying they helped expedite the repatriation process.

The artworks were handed over through lawful processes, including the execution of a Power of Attorney (POA) by the US Department of Justice to the MACC through the Attorney General’s Chambers.

“This demonstrates that the asset recovery approach is based on careful legal and diplomatic processes,” he said.

For now, the four recovered paintings are being temporarily housed at MACC headquarters, but Azam said he intends to hand them over to the National Art Gallery, and did not discount the possibility that they may be opened for public viewing.

“It should serve as a reminder of the crime that was committed,” the outgoing MACC chief said.

The MACC said it had recovered 74.5 per cent of the RM42 billion in misappropriated 1MDB funds as of last year, hailing it as a major success that purportedly “represents one of the highest asset recovery rates in the world for a large-scale financial crime scandal.”