Two paintings stolen from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum 14 years ago have been recovered in Italy. Thieves used a ladder to the museum's roof and broke in with sledgehammers in December 2002. Security systems were working and guards were on patrol, adding to the mystery of the crime.
"After all those years, you no longer dare to count on a possible return," said Axel Rüger, director of the museum.
Vincent van Gogh's 'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen,' dating from 1884/85, has sustained minor damage and is missing its frame. 'Seascape at Scheveningen,' from 1882, was found with the other work in the basement safe of an apartment belonging to mafia-linked drug dealer Raffaele Imperiale, according to Italian prosecutor Filippo Beatrice.
Both works were found in the village of Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples, as part of a larger investigation into the Amato Pagano clan, an international drug smuggling group affiliated with the Camorra, the region's notorious mafia family, reports CNN.
Imperiale is thought to have escaped to the United Arab Emirates. Italian authorities have requested his extradition.
Both paintings have been valued at $100 million and were on loan from the Dutch government. Two Dutch citizens were jailed for the crime, reports BBC, but the pair insists on their innocence.
From a museum statement on the works:
Seascape at Scheveningen is the only painting in our museum collection dating from van Gogh's period in The Hague (1881-1883). It is one of the only two seascapes that he painted during his years in the Netherlands and it is a striking example of van Gogh's early style of painting, already showing his highly individual character ...
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen is a small canvas that van Gogh painted for his mother in early 1884. It shows the church of the Reformed Church community in the Brabant village of Nuenen, Van Gogh's father being its Minister. In 1885, after his father's death, Van Gogh reworked the painting and added the churchgoers in the foreground, among them a few women in shawls worn in times of mourning. This may be a reference to his father's death. The strong biographical undertones make this a work of great emotional value.
The artwork will be held in Italy until the investigation is complete.
