Russborough House

Lady Writing a Letter with her Maid by Vermeer was stolen on 27 April 1974, along with a Goya, two Gainsboroughs and three Rubens from the Russborough House home of Sir Alfred Beit by armed members of the IRA.^[7] Led by the British heiress Dr. Rose Dugdale, the thieves used screwdrivers to cut the paintings from their frames.^[8] However, the Vermeer and other works were recovered eight days later at a cottage in County Cork. The work was again taken in 1986 by a gang led by the Dublin gangster Martin Cahill.^[9] Along with a number of other art-works, Cahill held the painting for a ransom of £20 million. However, the money was not paid, and Cahill lacked contacts or knowledge to otherwise pass it on to international art thieves. According to an Radio Telefís Éireann report, Cahill's taste in art extended only to "cheery scenes like the cheap print in his living room of swans on a river, but he believed the stolen masterpieces would bring him a fortune."^[9] The painting was eventually recovered during an August 1993 exchange at Antwerp airport which turned out to be a sting operation organised by the Irish police. It had already been donated in absentia to the National Gallery in Dublin.

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russborough House
• Page 64 - Dolnick, E., 2010, The Rescue Artist: A True Story of Art, Thieves, and the Hunt for a Missing: HarperColins, 318p.