 After the assassination of Gustav III in 1792 Piranesi was employed by Baron Gustaf Adolf Reuterholm, the head of the regent council which ruled Sweden during the minority of Gustav IV Adolf of Sweden.Reuterholm tasked Piranesi with spying on the favourite of the deceased king, Gustaf Mauritz Armfelt, who had been one of the men the king had appointed in the regent council in his will, but whom Reuterholm had deposed.Piranesi managed to steal Armfelt's letters which he had stored in the British embassy in Florence before beginning his work as foreign ambassador to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies.