Five paintings worth more than £1.7m were stolen from the Stockholm International Antiques Fair in a daring night raid at the weekend.
The thief hid inside the exhibition premises, removed the paintings from their frames, put them in a bag and escaped, despite being pursued by security guards.
The paintings were in the stock of an international art dealer and insured by AXA Art.
The insurer immediately flew an expert team from London to work with the Swedish authorities, Interpol and the Art Loss Register on recovering the paintings. Among the paintings stolen was A view near Alost, by Jan Breughel the Elder, which had an asking price of £1.6m.
AXA Art has offered a SKr1m (£70,000) reward for information leading to the recovery of the paintings.
