Johannesburg, South Africa - Four celebrated South African paintings stolen at gunpoint from a museum in Pretoria on Sunday were found intact two days later about 1,000 km (620 miles) away by a "wall of remembrance" at a church cemetery, police said.

Three men posing as an art teacher and two students on Sunday stole five paintings worth about US$2 million (S$2.4 million) from the Pretoria Art Museum after asking staff to point out the works from what has been described as a "shopping list" of the museum's most expensive art.

Brigadier Marinda Mills said police in the southern city of Port Elizabeth were tipped off by an informant about the paintings, which were found on Tuesday. No arrests have been made.

"The art pieces were left under a bench in the small cemetery where police forensic and crime scene experts are still fine-combing the area," she said.

The stolen works were: "Cat and Petunias" from Maggie Laubser, Hugo Naudé's "Hottentot Chief", "Eland and Bird" from J.H. Pierneef, Gerard Sekoto's "Street Scene" and "Fishing Boats" from Irma Stern.

Street Scene, valued at about US$800,000, remains missing.