Art Heist Four: The Swedish National Museum

Where: Stockholm, Sweden
When: 2000
Why it's impressive: The thieves used distraction tactics right out of Hollywood.

The gang who robbed the National Museum in Sweden in December 2000 knew their stuff: A machine gun will get you the haul, a bomb will distract police, and cars with flat tires can't respond to an alarm.

Their distraction tactics were superb. While three men were inside the museum, accomplices set off two car bombs on the opposite ends of town. Local police scattered, responding to the bombs positioned as far away from museum as possible. At the same time, other accomplices were laying spikes on the roads around the museum. While one man stood inside the museum with a gun, two others located the targeted paintings.

Dag Sundberg/Photographer's Choice/Getty Images
Thieves used elaborate distraction techniques to steal masterpieces from the Swedish National Museum in Stockholm.

They were in an out in a half hour, leaving with two Renoirs, "Young Parisian" and "Conversation with the Gardner," and a self-portrait by Rembrandt. The paintings were valued at $30 million combined. The getaway vehicle was a speedboat (the museum is on the waterfront).

Because the thieves were looking for specific paintings, authorities at first thought that the job might be a theft-for-hire by an art collector. Several days later, the museum received a call demanding ransom. But in less than two weeks after the heist, police arrested eight men, all of whom were convicted and served jail time. One of the accomplices was a criminal lawyer brought in to negotiate the ransom.

However, the works didn't start reappearing until several years later. Police carrying out a drug raid stumbled on "Conversation with the Gardener," and sent it back to the National Museum. In 2005, the Rembrandt self-portrait was recovered as it was about to be sold to a buyer in Copenhagen [source: WTOP News]. Two more men were convicted in the wake of the sting. "Young Parisian" is still missing.