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"This morning my colleagues arrested a
58-year-old man in Baarn and we suspect him of stealing two
paintings by Frans Hals and Van Gogh," police spokeswoman Maren
Wonder said in a video statement released on Twitter. No further
details were given about the suspect.
She added that the paintings have not been recovered and
appealed to the public to come forward with any information
about the whereabouts of the works.
In March last year thieves stole the Van Gogh painting "Lentetuin",
or "Spring Garden", which dates from 1884 and depicts the garden
of the rectory at Nuenen, from the Singer Laren Museum in the
town of Laren, near Amsterdam.
Five months later, thieves broke into a small museum near the
city of Utrecht and made off with a painting by Dutch "Golden
Age" master Frans Hals.
The work, "Two Laughing Boys" dated from 1626, was valued at 15
million euros ($18 million) by one expert. It had been stolen
twice before in its four-century history, including as recently
as May 2011 from the same museum. Police recovered it later that
year after arresting four men who tried to sell it.
($1 = 0.85 euros)
(Reporting by Stephanie van den Berg; Editing by Alex
Richardson)
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