ABOVE: Details from Rembrandt’s Self-portrait, left, and Renoir’s Young Parisian, both of which were announced recovered this weekend after an FBI sting.

The last of three paintings stolen from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm during a daring armed robbery on December 22, 2000, has been recovered, the FBI announced to the world this weekend. The four arrested men, an international rainbow coalition of two Iraqis, a Swede, and a Gambian, are alleged to be behind the theft, which involved such Luc Besson-style accoutrements as machine guns, car bombs, and a getaway by boat.

The paintings themselves have reportedly weathered their ordeal fairly well, with the Rembrandt self-portrait unscathed and Renoir’s Young Parisian having sustained a vexing but reparable scratch to its varnish. Both are still in their original frames, too. The FBI sting took place in a California hotel room (which sounds like a Mamet play waiting to happen), and the alleged thieves were selling the Rembrandt, valued at US$42 million, for just $100,000—slightly more than a 99.7% discount. We always knew crime doesn’t pay, figuratively, but in this case it sounds like it was literal, too.

LINK: The Independent > Gang behind $55 m art heist captured in FBI sting