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.