Van Gogh painting goes missing during lockdown, Singer Laren Museum, Netherlands 2020
While we were going about our business at the start of the pandemic trying out new dishes, binge-watching series but mostly rocking back and forth sobbing, etc., robbers were still out and about doing their thing, making the most of widespread, Covid-induced closures. Like in the Netherlands, when during the early hours of March 30th, 2020, an art thief pulled up to the Singer Laren Museum on a motorcycle and proceeded to smash his way through layers of protective window glass with a sledgehammer.
Conveniently captured on CCTV cameras, the thief can be seen moving swiftly through the museum, whipping in and then out, taking with him Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, 1884, which is worth millions. Local media put the value of the painting at between €1 million and €6 million ($1.1 million to $6.6 million).
“I am shocked and incredibly pissed off,” museum director Jan Rudolph de Lorm told Dutch public broadcaster. “Art is there to be enjoyed and to comfort people, especially during this difficult time,” Police say thieves entered the museum at around 3.15 a.m. local time. They are currently examining security footage and investigating the crime.
The museum, which lies around 30 kilometers (18 miles) from Amsterdam, has not reported any other missing works. The museum houses around 3,000 works.
Before the closure, the museum was hosting an exhibition titled “Mirror of the Soul,” in cooperation with Amsterdam’s Rijksmuseum.
The museum houses the collection of American couple William and Anna Singer, with a focus on modernism such as neo-impressionism, pointillism, expressionism, and cubism. Works by Dutch abstract artist Piet Mondrian and Dutch-Indonesian painter Jan Toorop are housed there.
Coincidentally, the theft coincided with Van Gogh’s birthday.
Although any arrests are yet to be made, Dutch art detective Arthur Brand is on the case and is said to have received two photographs that prove the artwork is still out there, somewhere.
Written by Nikitha D
TEAM VARNAM 