(CNN) French painter Edgar Degas' rousing depiction of singers at an opera has been found in -- of all places -- a parked bus, nine years after it was stolen from a Marseille museum.

"The Chorus Singers," painted in 1877, was found February 16 by customs agents. They were checking the luggage compartment of a bus parked at a rest area in Seine-et-Marne, outside Paris, the French Ministry of Culture said in a press release Friday.

"In a suitcase, they discovered a work carrying the signature 'Degas' for which no passenger came forward as the owner," the ministry said. Officials did not indicate whether they have any leads on who might have put the painting on the bus.

So ends the unusual road trip for Degas' only work inspired by an opera that doesn't feature dancers. It depicts a scene from Mozart's opera "Don Giovanni."

The Musée d'Orsay in Paris, which owns the work, confirmed the painting's authenticity following an initial examination, officials said. The art was lifted while it was on loan in 2009 to the Musée Cantini in Marseille.

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