An unidentified art dealer on his way to visit a client in Paris left behind a $1.6 million painting in the trunk of a taxi cab.

The work is by Argentina-born Italian sculptor and painter Lucio Fontana, from his famed series of pierced abstractions entitled "Concetto spaziale.”

Distracted by a phone call, the dealer says he forgot to take the artwork out of the cab with him after stopping at a Paris gallery last Thursday.

Searches for the cab with the artwork went unsuccessful and the dealer then filed a theft complaint with police.

On Tuesday, the cab driver reportedly returned the artwork, according to AFP .