More than three years after someone stole it from a Dutch museum, a missing Vincent Van Gogh painting worth millions was found this week in a bag of St.
An anonymous tipster on Monday delivered the painting, titled “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring,” in a blue Ikea bag to Dutch art crime detective Arthur Brand, who has been seeking work with police since March 2020.
On Van Gogh’s birthday that month, March 30, a man using a sledgehammer broke into the Singer Laren Museum, where the 1884 painting was temporarily housed, and left with it under his arm, as According the new York Times,
The piece was on loan to the Southeast Museum in Amsterdam as part of a temporary exhibition, but the museum had to close shortly after the exhibit began in response to the onset of the pandemic.
Just a few months after the robbery, photos of the painting began circulating online, some of which were received as tips to the brand. Brand told the Times that the painting was sold in the criminal circuit as a down payment, but its value ultimately declined as the thieves were convicted, meaning anyone else who showed it could potentially get a million-dollar windfall. Will get fined.
The detective has previously found a stolen Picasso and has developed shows and books about stolen artwork, so tipsters often know where to find stolen art when they have information about it, he told the Times.
The publication reported that they did not reveal who delivered the painting, but said that the person had offered it in exchange for anonymity and “no trouble.”
Brand revealed the recovery on Instagram, thanking officials who helped with the discovery and saying he would soon turn it over to a museum director.
The painting is being temporarily housed in the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, but the Groninger Museum, which lent the painting to Singer Laren, thanked the brand for its “important role in this case.”
“The Groninger Museum is extremely happy and relieved that the work is back,” its director Andreas Bluhm said in a statement. “We are very grateful to everyone who contributed to this good result.”
Bluhm stated that the painting “is deteriorated, but – at first glance – still in good condition.” Changes in this will be scientifically investigated in the coming months.
An insurance company is the current formal owner of the piece after Groninger paid for its loss, but the museum said it will exercise its right of first purchase of the work so it hopes to have it back on display in weeks if not months. Can be brought.