Friday 26th of April 1974 (x) — 19 Old Masters including a Goya, a Vermeer and a Gainsborough are stolen from the house of millionaire Sir Alfred Beit by the Irish Republican Army The IRA intended to hold the paintings to ransom in exchange for the transfer of IRA members Dolours Price and Marian Price who had been convicted of car-bombings in England. All the stolen paintings were recovered in County Cork a few weeks later.