FBI closes investigation into theft of 'flea-market' Renoir | VIDEO

A stolen painting by Renoir is now back at the Baltimore Museum of Art after more than 60 years. (WJZ Video)

From the moment it was created in 1879, a tiny landscape of the River Seine by Pierre-Auguste Renoir has been characterized by a tangled weave of embellishments, layers and knots.

When the Impressionist master sat down to dash off a quick oil sketch of the River Seine, he picked up not the usual piece of canvas, but museum experts confirmed Thursday a linen napkin with an elaborate geometric pattern in which threads twist above, below and around one another.

"Our textile curator, Anita Jones, spent a lot of time looking at the painting under a high-powered microscope," Katy Rothkopf, the museum's senior curator of European painting and sculpture, told reporters gathered for the press preview of a new exhibit, "The Renoir Returns," which opens Sunday.

"The fabric is a type of linen damask that in the late 19th century was used for table linens," Rothkopf said. "It was unusual for painters to use this type of fabric, but it turned out to be a good choice. Linen increases in strength when wet and is smoother than wool or cotton."

But as elaborate as the fabric's geometric structure is, it's virtually a model of simplicity when compared to the 135-year-old artwork's past.

The FBI announced on Thursday that the investigation into the theft of "Paysage Bord du Seine" from the museum in 1951 has been closed. After interviewing dozens of witnesses over nearly 18 months, there isn't sufficient evidence to arrest anyone either for stealing the artwork or for intentionally possessing stolen property, Special Agent Gregg Horner said.

"A lot of people are disappointed when these investigations end without a prosecution," Horner said in an interview at the FBI's Baltimore branch. "But, sometimes that's the nature of these cases. The woman who was in possession of the painting wasn't even born then, so she obviously didn't steal it. And, we had no indication that she knew that it was stolen property."

It all makes for an irresistibly romantic story expected to draw throngs of visitors to the museum this weekend when the Renoir goes on display for the first time in more than six decades, as part of an exhibition drawn from the collection of the painting's donor, the Baltimore heiress and philanthropist Saidie May.

Part of the painting's allure is that it has consistently passed through the hands of women with vivid personalities. They include May, who bought that water view from a Paris gallery in 1925 and later bequeathed it to the museum.

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FBI closes investigation into theft of 'flea-market' Renoir | VIDEO