More than 400 works by Dutch artist Karel Appel have been discovered in a British storage warehouse a decade after they went missing.

Appel, who was distraught over the loss of his drawings and sketches in 2002, died in 2006 without knowing what had happened to them.

The drawings disappeared en route from his Zurich studio to the Karel Appel Foundation in Amsterdam, an agency he founded to maintain his legacy. The loss was reported to police immediately.

The logistics company that recently bought the British warehouse discovered the works a few months ago in eight wooden crates, among dozens of items it planned to clear out. When the company sent the art to Bonhams for valuation, the auction house found that the works had been listed on the Art Loss Register, the organization that tracks missing artwork worldwide.

The logistics company, which remains unnamed, has released its claim to the drawings and they will be returned to the Karel Appel Foundation. There was no documentation with the crates to determine how they ended up in Britain.

Appel was an expressionist painter, sculptor and poet who helped found the avant-garde Cobra movement, which encouraged experimentation and spontaneity, as well as drawing inspiration from the artwork of children. In 1954, he received the UNESCO prize at the Venice Art Biennale.

Many of the drawings were studies for works the artist never finished. His widow, Harriet Appel, has identified the items.

"I am extremely happy that the Karel Appel Foundation have recovered the lost drawings and am impressed by the successful and professional way in which this case was handled by the ALR," she said.