(CBS) Police on Friday recovered reel-to-reel tapes apparently recorded by The Beatles and believed stolen from the band's studios in London more than three decades ago.

Detectives raided a home in western Sydney early Friday and seized tape recordings of the "Abbey Road" album and "The Beatles," better known as "The White Album." They also confiscated album artwork, police said in a statement.

A preliminary examination of the tapes suggested they are either original studio recordings or professionally made copies, police said. They did not say how much the tapes are worth.

Detectives believe the recordings were stolen from the Abbey Road studios in 1969. A 27-year-old man was arrested at the home but was later released without charges being filed.

It's not known how the tapes wound up in Australia.

Police have given the seized tapes to a musicologist to determine their authenticity.

The raid stemmed from a British investigation into a suspected piracy racket code-named "Operation Acetone." That led to the recovery of 500 tapes believed to be original Beatles recordings during a raid in Holland last month. Five people — three Britons and two Dutchmen — have been arrested.

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