[CPProt.net] Rembrandt, Renoir Works Stolen in 2000 Are Recovered (Update2)

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Rembrandt, Renoir Works Stolen in 2000 Are Recovered (Update2) 
Sept. 16 (Bloomberg) -- Paintings by Renoir and Rembrandt stolen in 2000
from a museum in Sweden were recovered after an investigation by authorities
in the U.S., Sweden and Denmark. 

Rembrandt's ``Self-Portrait'' was recovered yesterday in Copenhagen after an
undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation agent posed as a potential buyer,
the FBI office in Los Angeles said in a statement today. Danish police
arrested four suspects who brought the painting to a hotel for the sale, the
FBI said. 

Renoir's ``Young Parisian'' was recovered in Los Angeles in March, FBI
spokeswoman Laura Eimiller said in a telephone interview. The recovery of
that painting, which hadn't been disclosed before, led investigators to the
suspects who were trying to sell the Rembrandt painting, she said. Eimiller
declined to say whether any arrests have been made in the U.S. in connection
with the case. 

``It's still an ongoing investigation and we can't provide further details
at this point,'' Eimiller said. 

The four arrested suspects are all Swedish residents. They were trying to
sell the 1630 self portrait of the Dutch painter in Los Angeles and Sweden,
according to the FBI statement. The undercover agent who posed as a buyer
for the stolen painting met with the suspects on September 14 and 15 in
Copenhagen to negotiate the sale. 

`Conversation' 

A third painting, Renoir's ``Conversation,'' which was stolen during the
same robbery, was recovered in July 2001. The recovery of that painting in
Sweden wasn't related to the current investigation, Eimiller said. The three
paintings have a combined value of about $45 million, the FBI said. 

The paintings were stolen from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm on
December 23, 2000. One thief held up the security guards at gunpoint just as
the museum was about to close and two others ran upstairs to steal the
paintings. The three fled by boat and used car bombs and tire spikes to
cause confusion during their escape. 

Last year, two Edvard Munch paintings including a version of the famous
``Scream'' were stolen at gunpoint from an Oslo museum. 
 


To contact the reporter on this story:
Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at  epettersson at bloomberg.net