Dutch Police Nab Suspect in Van Gogh, Hals Art Thefts
- April 06, 2021 12:50
Police in the Netherlands said Tuesday that a 58-year-old man from Baarn was arrested at his home on suspicion of stealing two paintings from art museums.
The works by Vincent van Gogh and Frans Hals have not been recovered.
Van Gogh's “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884,″ was taken from the Singer Laren museum in Amsterdam on March 30, 2020 while the building was closed due to COVID-19 restrictions. The painting was on loan from another art institution, the Groninger Museum in the city of Groningen.
Van Gogh stayed with his parents at the parsonage shown in the painting between 1883 and 1885.
The Hals painting, “Two Laughing Boys,” was stolen from Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in Leerdam, about 35 miles southeast of Amsterdam, in August 2020. That work has disappeared twice before, in 1988 and 2011, before being recovered.
Depicting two laughing boys with a mug of beer, the Hals work was valued at 15 million euros ($17.7 million) by one expert, according to Reuters news agency.
100x100_c.jpg "Grandma Moses (nee Anna Mary Robertson, American, 1860-1961), ‘Deep Snow,’ 1957, oil on Masonite, 22¾ x 30 5/8in (framed), artist-signed at lower left. Titled and dated on original artist’s label on verso. Direct line of provenance back to the artist. Copyright Grandma Moses Properties Co., New York. Estimate $60,000-$80,000")
