It’s no surprise that with many “non-essential” businesses being closed due to the coronavirus that criminals took advantage of all the unoccupied buildings.
Unfortunately, no one expected a night raid at the Dutch Institute Singer Laren Museum located just east of Amsterdam. A group of thieves made out with an original Vincent van Gogh on Monday.
According to Evert van Os, museum director, the painting was on loan from the Groninger Museum for an exhibition titled “Mirror of the Soul.” He commented that the institution is “angry, shocked and sad” over the theft.
The Hill reports:
The museum’s collection focuses on modernist movements such as pointillism, cubism, expressionism and neo-impressionism.
“This beautiful and moving painting by one of our greatest artists stolen — removed from the community,” Os continued. “It is very bad for the Groninger Museum, it is very bad for the Singer, but it is terrible for us all because art exists to be seen and shared by us, the community, to enjoy to draw inspiration from and to draw comfort from, especially in these difficult times.”
The thief or thieves set off an alarm by smashing a glass door, but had vanished with the painting by the time police responded at the scene, according to the AP.
Another of the museum’s most famous pieces, a bronze cast of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker,” was stolen along with six other works from its sculpture garden in 2007 and was later recovered minus a leg.
There is no doubt the thieves will be caught if they try to sell the painting. The estimated value of the original piece of artwork is said to be about $13.5 million.
