The 1778 painting "Children With A Cart" was being shipped by truck from the Guggenheim Museum of Art in New York to an exhibit in Toledo, Ohio. Steven Lee Olson and Roman Szurko, who both lived in Roxbury in western New Jersey at the time, stumbled on it when they broke into a truck at a rest area in eastern Pennsylvania.

Olson told a federal judge in Newark that he thought about destroying the painting after he realized what he had taken, but decided instead to try to make money by claiming a reward for its return, The Star-Ledger of Newark reported.

"Well, that was a good thing," U.S. District Judge Dennis Cavanaugh said.

Olson waited several months and then took the painting to the FBI, claiming he found it hidden in his basement. He immediately became a suspect.

Olson and Szurko, who pleaded guilty on Monday, face up to five years in prison.