Gabriel Metsu 's '' Woman Reading a Letter , '' stolen in 1986 by Martin Cahill , an Irish gangster , from a manor house near Dublin , was recovered four years later in an Istanbul hotel room as it was being swapped for heroin , while Vermeer 's '' Lady Writing a Letter With Her Maid , '' taken in the same burglary , was left with an Amsterdam diamond merchant as collateral for a $ 1 million loan to buy drugs .