STOCKBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) – Michael Bakwin has waited nearly three decades to recover the paintings that were stolen from his home here in 1978. Now that the art is headed back to him, the collector said he’ll take better care to protect his masterpieces.

“I will put (the paintings) on the walls of my house, and in my safe when I leave,” Bakwin, who now lives in Ossining, N.Y., told The Berkshire Eagle. “I was lax.”

Earlier this week, a retired lawyer living on Cape Cod told The Boston Globe that he had the paintings, which were stolen by one of his former clients. Robert M. Mardirosian said he knew the paintings were stolen, but was holding on to them while he demanded a 10-percent finder’s fee.

Seven paintings, including a still life by Paul Cezanne worth millions of dollars, were stolen from Bakwin’s home in the Berkshires.

“Besides my wife and children, they were my most precious things,” he said. “I got really very depressed about (the theft). It kept me upset and angry, and changed my philosophy about life.”

Bakwin had recovered the Cezanne, “Bouilloire et Fruits,” several years ago, and then sold it at auction in 1999 for $29.5 million.

Two of the seven stolen paintings are still unaccounted for, and the remaining four will be returned to Bakwin.

Mardirosian, 71, now a painter and sculptor, said the paintings were hidden in his attic in 1978 by David Colvin, who he was representing in another case. Mardirosian said he discovered the paintings a year later. By then, Colvin had been fatally shot over a debt.

Mardirosian set up a shell company called Erie International, through which he tried to sell or trade the paintings. When the art began surfacing at auctions, a lawsuit was filed against Erie International by the Art Loss Register, a London-based organization that tracks stolen art.

The lawsuit led to a hearing Tuesday in London, during which Mardirosian was identified as sole owner of Erie International.

A judge ruled that Mardirosian owes Bakwin $3 million in court, legal and investigative fees. Officials from the Art Loss Register said they will cooperate with any FBI investigations, but an FBI spokeswoman would not confirm or deny if the agency was involved in the case.