An art swindler who spent 3½ years in federal prison for selling forgeries of works by modern masters has a valuable — and this time genuine — painting stashed in his Queens tobacco warehouse and won’t return it, according to a lawsuit.

Ely Sakhai, who sold fakes of minor works by Gauguin, Chagall, Renoir and others, has an 8-foot by 8-foot, four-panel painting, “Shootout,” by American minimalist Donald Sultan tucked away inside Tiger Tobacco and Food Distribution in Corona, the suit says.

In December 2009, Fabian CarLsson, along with two corporations, Craigavon Ltd. of Bermuda and Mellow Corp. of Curaçao, demanded Sakhai return their painting, but Sakhai refused, according to the suit filed this month in Queens Supreme Court.

The painting was consigned to a Manhattan gallery that went out of business, and it somehow wound up at Tiger Tobacco, said Carlsson’s lawyer, Stuart Gartner.

Sakhai denies he has the painting, which the suit says is worth $100,000.

Sakhai pleaded guilty to mail fraud in Manhattan federal court in December 2004.

He would purchase authentic lesser-known works by big-name painters and commission forgeries, according to federal court records.

He was found out in 2000 when the copy and the original of Gauguin’s “Vase de Fleur (Lilas)” wound up in competing auction houses.