A Vincent van Gogh painting – stolen from a museum at midnight during an audacious robbery three years ago – has been found by an art detective in the Netherlands.
Arthur Brand, dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” for locating a series of lost high-profile artworks, said recovering the 19th-century oil painting was “one of the greatest moments of my life”.
“We have incredible good news. The painting ‘Spring Garden’ … is back with the Groninger Museum three and half years after the theft,” the museum said in a statement.
The Dutch police arts crime unit confirmed the 1884 Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring painting, worth 3 to 6 million euros ($3.2-6.4m), had been found.
“Arthur Brand, in cooperation with the Dutch police, has solved this matter,” officer Richard Bronswijk said. “This is definitely the real one, there’s no doubt about it.”
The painting was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam on March 30, 2020. In a video released by police, a suspect was shown smashing through a glass door in the middle of the night before running out with the painting under his right arm.
Credit: Aljazeera.com
