of Sir Alfred Beit by armed members of the IRA. Led by the British heiress Rose Dugdale, the thieves used screwdrivers to cut the paintings from their frames. 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. Along with a number of other art-works, Cahill held the painting for a ransom of IR£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 a RTÉ 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." 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. Notes Sources Bonafoux, Pascal. Vermeer. New York: Konecky & Konecky, 1992. Hart, Matthew. The Irish Game. London: Random House, 2004. Huerta, Robert. Vermeer and Plato: Painting the Ideal. Bucknell University Press, 2005. Pollock, Griselda. Differencing the canon. Routledge, 1999. Wheelock, Arthur K. Vermeer: The Complete Works. New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1997. Further reading External links Woman Writing a Letter, with her Maid at the website of the National Gallery of Ireland Genre paintings by Johannes Vermeer 1670s paintings Collection of the National Gallery of Ireland Portraits of women 1670s in the Dutch Republic Stolen works of art Beit collection