Dali died in 1989

The Motionless Swallow was found in a Madrid antique shop which had acquired the painting "in good faith" from a Barcelona art dealer.

The work, valued at 300,000 euros (�205,000 or $322,000), had been stolen from a home in Catalonia's Girona province, close to the surrealist's home town of Figueres.

Police said the suspects, three from Spain and two from France, would be detained shortly.

One of the suspects had tried to sell the work in London in June 2002 at Sotheby's auction house, police said.

Along with Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, Dali was one of Spain's greatest painters of the 20th Century.

Best known for his flamboyant lifestyle and handlebar moustache, Dali died in 1989 aged 84.