The “Indiana Jones of art” managed to recover a stolen Van Gogh painting

A painting of Vincent van Gogh which had been stolen with a hammer three and a half years ago from a museum in the Netherlands was recovered by a Dutch detective specialized in art, whom the European press has dubbed “the Indiana Jones of art” for his meticulous investigations. that have previously made it possible to find stolen works of Salvador Dali and Pablo Picasso.

The detective Arthur Brandsuch is the name of the “hero” of the operation, managed to find this work that the artist painted in 1884 and was stolen during the confinement due to the pandemic of the Singer Laren Museumas confirmed by the gallery itself in a statement reproduced by several media, including The Guardian, where it also points out that the painting “has suffered damage, but, at first glance, it is still in good condition.”

The painting in question is called “Spring Garden” (in Dutch, Lentetuin, from pastorietuin te Nuenen in het voorjaaque) and represents the garden of the Nuenen parish house, where the artist lived for two years and where he conceived more than a quarter of his work, including his first masterpiece, “The Potato Eaters.”

The canvas was stolen in the early morning of March 30, 2020, when the museum was temporarily closed due to coronavirus restrictions. A video from security cameras released by the Dutch police showed the moment in which the thief entered the institution after breaking the glass doors with a hammer and fled minutes later with the painting, which had been lent by the Groninger Museum for a temporary exhibition.

Since then, the authorities – together with a team of forensics, detectives and experts in stolen art – began a criminal investigation to try to locate the thieves and recover the painting, valued between three and six million euros (3.2 million and 6.4 million dollars).

How Vincent van Gogh’s painting was recovered

However, the one who managed to advance the matter was Brand and maintained that the painting ended up in the hands of a criminal organization that wanted to use it as a means of negotiation to reduce prison sentences in case of conviction and the detective himself negotiated with the organization, but did not. was able to recover Van Gogh’s painting.

For reasons that are still unknown, last weekend, a man met Brand in the middle of the night in Amsterdam and returned the painting to him, an operation that was carried out in total discretion. The identity of the person who delivered the painting is kept secret and would not be responsible for the theft but rather an intermediary who acted to facilitate the delivery.

In a video published by the detective, he is seen shocked when he discovers it, after unwrapping the package in the living room of his house. “Confirming that it is the stolen Van Gogh has been one of the greatest moments of my life”indicated the detective, as reproduced by the AFP news agency.

The painting is now in the hands of the Groninger Museum, whose employees stress that they are “very happy and relieved that the work is back,” says Andreas Blühm, director of the art gallery, who highlighted that Brand, “played a key role in this case.” and the museum values ​​it very much.”

In 2020, the detective received photos of the painting as “proof of life” that it was still intact. He presented it along with a copy of The New York Times newspaper dated May 30 of that year and it was already a sign that the thieves were trying to find a buyer. “Or better, a way out, because we know that he has been going from one criminal group to another without them knowing what to do. It is a common practice in mafia circuits that use art as collateral in case they are arrested,” he told the press.

Brand, who owes the “honorary title” of “Indiana Jones of art” to a career in which he has recovered works by Dalí and Picasso among others, he had to gain the trust of his unexpected interlocutor. “I always inform the police and we knew that this person only wanted to return the cloth. There were no other criminal ties in his case. In the end, he came to my office and gave it to me. Shortly after, the director of the Groninger Museum knocked on the door “He was waiting on the street and he confirmed that it was the original. It is in good condition, with scratches. Then we celebrated it and also with the agents,” he explained to the press.

In April 2021, police arrested a man identified in Dutch media as Nils M for the robbery. He was later found guilty and sentenced to eight years in prison, as he was also convicted of stealing, on another occasion, another masterpiece, from Frans Halscalled “Two Smiling Children.”