The Renoir Robbery

In December of 2000, a man pointed a submachine gun at the unarmed guard standing in the lobby of the National Museum in Stockholm, while two of his accomplices entered the museum and stole two Renoir paintings, Young Parisian and Conversation with the Gardener, and Rembrandt's 1630 self-portrait. As they made their getaway, the three men dropped spikes on the road behind them and then boarded a boat and fled the scene. To distract police the theives set off car explosives throughout the city.

The estimated net worth of these three paintings was $30 million, and none of them were insured. The boat was found later that day in a neighborhood nearby and a few days later, a ransom note was received for several million dollars. The police did not negotiate with the ransom note. In January of the next year, eight men were arrested and charged with the robbery of the paintings.

Renoir's Conversation with the Gardener wasn't recovered until 2005. It was found during an undercover drug raid. The other two paintings were also recovered during part of the same undercover operation.

The Conversation with the Gardener