The artwork, valued at 15 million euros ($18
million) by one expert, and dating from 1626, was taken from the
Hofje van Aerden Museum before dawn on Thursday with thieves
breaking into the building from the back door.
It is the second theft of a painting from a Dutch museum closed
to the public because of the COVID-19 pandemic, after a Van Gogh
was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum in March.
"Around 3:30 a.m. the alarm went off, and agents went straight
to the museum," police said in a statement, calling for
witnesses. "After the museum's manager could grant access to the
area and building, it emerged that the back door had been forced
open and one painting had been stolen."
A spokesman for the museum referred all questions to the police.
RTL Nieuws cited art expert Arthur Brand as estimating the
painting's value at around 15 million euros ($18 million).
"Criminals know that major museums have sufficient security," he
told the Dutch broadcaster, but smaller regional museums less
so.
"They probably concluded it's worth a lot of money, and it's
relatively easy to steal."
Two Laughing Boys has 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.
The Van Gogh painting taken in Laren, the 1884 "Spring Garden,"
has not been recovered.
Hals, a contemporary of Dutch painter Rembrandt van Rijn, was
born in the early 1580s in Antwerp and moved as a child to the
Dutch city of Haarlem. He began to work as an art restorer
before becoming a portrait painter in his own right. He is best
known for his painting "The Laughing Cavalier" as well as some
of his life-size group portraits. He died in Haarlem 1666.
(Reporting by Toby Sterling; Editing by Alexandra Hudson)
[© 2020 Thomson Reuters. All rights
reserved.] Copyright 2020 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published,
broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Thompson Reuters is solely responsible for this content.
|
|