[CPProt.net] Stolen masterpieces recovered (more on the Rembrandt and Renoir recoveries)

[MSN CPPnet (Ton Cremers)]

Stolen masterpieces recovered
>From correspondents in Copenhagen
17sep05
TWO art masterpieces - a self-portrait of 17th-century Dutch artist
Rembrandt and a painting by French impressionist Pierre-August Renoir -
stolen from Sweden's National Museum five years ago have been recovered,
Danish and US officials said today.

The recovery of the multi-million dollar artworks in an international
undercover operation means all three paintings stolen in the daring December
2000 heist have now been found.

Four men - two Iraqis, a Gambian and a Swede - were arrested by Danish
police in a sting operation yesterday while showing the $US40 million ($52
million) Rembrandt to a potential buyer at a Copenhagen hotel, Danish police
said.

"We have recovered the painting during a planned action," police spokesman
Flemming Steen Munch told Reuters in Copenhagen, adding that the four men
would be held in custody for 13 days pending further investigation.

Renoir's A Young Parisienne, stolen from the Swedish museum along with the
Rembrandt and valued at $US13 million ($A17 million), was recovered in the
United States a few months ago as part of the same undercover operation, but
the news was kept quiet as agents pursued the final missing masterpiece, US
law enforcement officials disclosed today. 

"We recovered Renoir's Young Parisienne earlier this year in Los Angeles,
but did not divulge the development because the investigation was ongoing,
and there was hope that ultimately the investigators would be able to
recover the Rembrandt self-portrait, which happened this week," a federal
law enforcement official said.

The official said the painting appeared to be in excellent condition.

The official declined to say whether any arrests had been made in Los
Angeles.

Both works were snatched from the museum on Stockholm's waterfront by an
armed gang that entered the building just before closing time in December
2000.

While one man brandished a sub-machine gun in the lobby, two others seized
the paintings from the second floor. As they escaped, scattering spikes on
the road to delay pursuers, two cars exploded nearby, creating a diversion.
The men then made off in a small boat that was later recovered.

The third painting stolen in that heist, Renoir's Conversation, was
recovered by Swedish police in 2001.

News of the Rembrandt recovery broke first, and was well received in Sweden.
Asked how she felt on hearing of the recovery, Gorel Cavalli-Bjorkman, head
of research at Sweden's National Museum and a Rembrandt expert, said: "I
jumped with joy!"

"I had expected it would be recovered at some point, I was just hoping we
would get it back before I retired," she said.

Danish police spokesman Munch said the painting seemed to be in good
condition, but Cavalli-Bjorkman said the museum's art restorer would
undertake a closer examination.

There have been several high-profile art robberies in the Nordics in recent
years. A version of Norwegian artist Edvard Munch's The Scream was stolen
from an Oslo museum last year in a case that has baffled the country and led
to an abundance of conspiracy theories. That painting is still missing.