ZURICH (REUTERS) - Swiss authorities acting on a US request have seized three valuable paintings linked to an investigation into scandal-hit Malaysian state fund 1MDB, they said on Thursday (July 21).

A spokeswoman for the Federal Office of Justice said the paintings ordered seized were van Gogh's La maison de Vincent à Arles and Monet's Saint-Georges Majeur and Nympheas avec Reflets de Hautes Herbes. She was confirming a report by the Neue Luzerner Zeitung newspaper. "The operation is not over yet so we will not comment at the moment on the location of the paintings," she said.

The US government on Wednesday filed lawsuits seeking to seize US$1 billion (S$1.4 billion) in assets bought with money believed to have been stolen from 1MDB.