Unit 5, Part 2

I have worked all day today, I will work all day tomorrow, Troubled sleep is no relief, More like a chance to breath, And what will I have To show for my efforts? Headaches, brain damage, Stress and a broken marriage, Money is fluid, Impossible to hold, There is no way to stop it Flowing in and out of my pocket, I am driftwood buffeted by the sea, And from my voyage so far, I'm empty tired and sore As I drift on towards the shore.

Unit 5, Part 3

Empty white rectangles on the wall mark the spot in Sweden's national museum where the two Renoirs used to hang, though a Rembrandt snatched from the next room has already been replaced - temporarily - by another 17th century Dutch work. It was late on the Friday before Christmas when something like a bank robbery shattered the cultured hush of Stockholm's waterfront, opposite parliament and the royal palace.

Masked men held off unarmed guards at gunpoint and cut down the three pictures.

Three weeks after one of the boldest crimes Sweden has ever seen, five suspects are in custody.

But the motives of the thieves and, crucially, the whereabouts of these priceless works of art, remain a mystery.

Swedes, stunned by the museum theft, are asking uneasy questions about security and violence. "It was a shock for many people," said Hans-Henrik Brummer, the acting director of the fine arts gallery. "Things like that just don't happen here."

In extraordinary scenes, terrified visitors were held back in the lobby by one gunman while two others were busy on the second floor, where guard Dan Andersen - equipped only with a radio - was on duty in the old masters room. "He was wearing a mask with holes for the eyes so I never saw his face," Mr Andersen recalled this week. "I went up and said: 'What the hell are you doing?' Then he pointed a gun at me and told me to lie down. He was very controlled."

The Rembrandt was a 20x30cm self-portrait painted in 1630. Seven larger works by the Dutch master were untouched.

In the next room, where a dazzling array of French impressionists are housed, the second thief used wire-cutters to quickly remove Renoir's Conversation and Young Parisian, both small and easily portable works.

Running down the marble stairs to the museum lobby, they joined the third robber, left via the front door and jumped into a speedboat. By the time police arrived, six minutes later, it was all over.

Initially, Stockholm police believed the crime had been commissioned by a wealthy collector willing to pay to keep the pictures for their private pleasure: clearly such famous works could never be sold or displayed openly.

But then came a new twist: police received a photograph of the pictures juxtaposed with a recent edition of a popular tabloid, along with a demand for several million kronor of ransom.

Police and the museum insist that paying a ransom is out of the question. Police admit the case is a bizarre combination of professional execution and clumsy amateurism.

Staff desperately hope the pictures will be returned. Police remain silent about the investigation, saying only that they believe the three pictures are still in Sweden and that more people are involved.