Some of the earliest and most important paintings of the Western Desert art movement were stolen from the Museum and Art Gallery of the Northern Territory on Tuesday.

Seven pieces of aboriginal paintings, valued at more than $460,000, were recovered hours later after the thief apparently changed his mind and dumped them in a park, police said.

The thief broke into the museum in the northern city of Darwin before dawn and took paintings from the early days of the Papunya Tula movement - an artists' collective in central Australia credited with creating a modern Aboriginal style that is now world renowned.

About seven hours later, detectives found the seven paintings in parkland near the Darwin Bowls and Social Club.Authorities said the itinerant has been remanded in custody to be assessed for drug addiction.

Graham Heath, 37, has been charged with carrying out the Northern Territory's largest art heist. Heath's lawyer Tom Kaye did not ask for bail and requested that his client, who was known to police and suspected of being drunk at the time of the offence, be treated for drug abuse.

Magistrate Daynor Trigg remanded Heath in custody, where he will be assessed for dug addiction, until April 17.

The museum's director, Anna Malgorzewicz, said the historical value of the Papunya art was beyond price.The style, often featuring thousands of dots in bright acrylic colors, became known as Western Desert and has become iconic, lining art galleries around the world.

Paintings by the style's most famous artist, the late Emily Kame Kngwarreye, now regularly sell for hundreds of thousands of dollars.