STOCKHOLM, JAN 8: The number of arrests in the daring art theft at Stockholm's National Museum just before Christmas rose to eight on Sunday after Swedish police detained four more people over the last three days, the TT agency said.Those arrested are suspected to have played a role in the December 22 theft of three paintings-a Rembrandt and two Renoirs valued at $30 million-by a machine-gun wielding gang who used exploding cars, spikes on a road and a boat to make their getaway.The latest arrests, carried out over the last three days, included a Stockholm criminal lawyer, who had allegedly acted as a middle man when the robbers contacted the police to demand ransom for the paintings, the TT agency said.The lawyer and another of the suspects were released from police custody by a Stockholm district court late on Sunday, but police upheld charges against them.Seven of those arrested are Swedes, the eighth is a Russian.The paintings have not been recovered, but police said they believed they were still in Sweden and would soon be found.Commissioner Gosta Andersson of the Stockholm county criminal police told TT that two of the new arrests were carried out on Saturday evening, but declined to give further details.The agency reported unnamed sources as saying one, a 49-year-old, was held on charges of extortion and another, 40, on charges of receiving stolen goods.An armed gang stole the three pictures, a self portrait by Dutch master Rembrandt and two works by French impressionist Pierre-August Renoir, "A Young Parisienne" and "Conversation", by entering the museum on Stockholm's waterfront just before closing time.While one man brandished a sub-machinegun in the lobby, two others seized the paintings from the second floor.As they escaped, scattering spikes on the road to delay pursuers, two cars exploded nearby, creating a diversion. The men then made off in a small boat which was later recovered.
