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The painting "Lentetuin", or "Spring Garden,"
which dates back to 1884 and depicts the garden of the rectory
at Nuenen, had been on loan from the Groninger Museum.
"I feel incredibly angry and now I'm starting to feel sadder
too," Jan Rudolph de Lorm, director of the Singer Laren Museum,
told Reuters in an interview.
He appealed to those who had taken the painting to treat it with
care "so that sooner or later it can be shown to the public
unharmed".
Van Gogh, who struggled with mental illness throughout his life,
was staying with his parents when he painted "Spring Garden".
His father worked as a minister in Nuenen.
De Lorm described the painting, which depicts a woman in a
garden with red-flowered bushes and with a church in the
background, as "an image of silence, of reflection and of
tranquility, which undoubtedly offered him comfort and
inspiration".
"Through him, it gave us and our audience the same emotion,” de
Lorm added.
The museum, located in the town of Laren to the east of
Amsterdam, has appealed for the swift return of the painting,
which has been added to Interpol's list of stolen artworks.
In a statement, police said the thieves had entered the museum
by breaking its glass doors at around 3.15 a.m. (0115 GMT). "The
culprits were gone by the time police responded to the alarm,"
the statement said.
Investigators are searching for security footage and witnesses,
and are examining forensic evidence, it added.
Dutch museums have been closed because of the coronavirus
outbreak since March 12.
(Additional reporting by Toby Sterling in Amsterdam; Writing by
Anthony Deutsch; Editing by Gareth Jones, William Maclean)
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