STOLEN VAN GOGH PAINTING RETURNED IN SHOPPING BAG
During the Coronavirus lockdown, a Van Gogh painting was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum in The Netherlands.
The missing painting was stolen during a very daring heist three and a half years ago. At the time, Dutch police released video images of the burglary. It showed the thief smashing through a glass door in the middle of the night, before running out with the painting under his arm.
Local police struggled to find the thief and eventually ended up making use of the services of Arthur Brand, known as the Indiana Jones of the Art World.
Brand has managed to recover several high-profile artworks that have been stolen.
The detective described the recovery of the 1884 Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring as “one of the greatest moments of my life”.
A man knocked on his door at home and handed Brand a blue IKEA bag. Brand couldn’t believe his eyes when he opened the bag and found the painting covered in bubble wrap and stuffed in a pillow case.
It’s believed the painting is worth between 3 and 6 million euros.
The AFP says Brand told them that frequent calls by him and the Dutch police to hand back the stolen artwork finally paid off when a man, whose identity was not revealed for his own safety, handed Brand the painting at his home in Amsterdam.
Image credit: CNN