Posted on 12/07/2002 4:40:04 AM PST by MadIvan
Burglars have stolen two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum, Dutch police say.
The thieves got in through the roof early on Saturday, police spokesman Remco Gerretsen told BBC News Online.
The stolen paintings are well known to art lovers: View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Leaving the Church at Nuenen. Police have not yet put a value on them.
The paintings are among Van Gogh's later works - executed in 1882 and 1885 respectively - and such works usually sell for millions of dollars.
The museum, in the heart of Amsterdam, contains the world's largest collection of Van Gogh paintings. It holds more than 200 paintings and 500 drawings by the Dutch post-Impressionist.
Museum closed
The theft was discovered at 0800 (0600 GMT) - two hours before opening time - and police have now cordoned off the museum.
It is the second major theft in the Netherlands in a week. On Monday, thieves raided a diamond exhibition at the Museon in The Hague, making off with gems worth about $5m.
Investigators are baffled by the Van Gogh theft, as guards patrol the premises at night and there is tight security inside, including infra-red systems and cameras.
Police found a broken window one storey above street level and a 4.5-metre (15-foot) ladder leaning against the rear of the building, the Associated Press reported. Broken glass and a large cloth that may have been used in the burglary were taken away for inspection.
Mr Gerretsen said that so far investigators had found nothing wrong with the museum's security systems.
Van Gogh was born in the Netherlands in 1853 and died in France in 1890.
The paintings. Word has it that police are "keeping an ear to the ground" for information concering the theft.
View of the Sea at Scheveningen, 1882
Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, 1885
Which is why you steal something like that on commission. It is not chance that those two paintings were taken. Someone wanted those two, (or at least one of those two) paintings.
Here is how I would do it, first I would get a very good reproduction and hang it in plain sight for at least a year. Then I would have the original stolen and switch the original for the reproduction and, very important, destroy the reproduction. The original could be hanging in plain view in my office and no one would question it.
a.cricket
I wanted to see the paintings, you know, in case I see someone trying to sell them at a garage sale or flea market.
Good idea. But don't pay more than $10 or so for either of them - that way, the people selling them won't get suspicious that they're making a mistake. If there's one of those velvet-Elvis paintings, or the dogs-playing-poker, or those glow-in-the-dark Jesus paintings, throw a couple of those in, too, to make it look like you have no taste. They'll never suspect someone like that ;)
I was thinking the ultimate destination was pre-arranged and the theft paid for in advance. Displaying copies first though! Wow. Sounds like you may know a bit too much...you have the right to remain silent, anything you say blah blah blah
;-)
||| The original could be hanging in plain view in my office and no one would question it. |||
LOL! You are so busted, and I need more coffee
No, Mr. Bond, I intend for you to Die! Operation Missing Ear isn't about one or two little canvas paintings,...
Bond: Ingenious, Goldfinger, I had you undersetimated. When you captured the .jpg market, it was merely a pre-emptive move. So you intend instead to drive up the market price for priceless vanGogh paintings in general, then shift the center of gravity of art value from canvas to .jpg files. Thereby redering all canvas worthless. Then cornering the market on art value to your whim. But what about SMERSH!
I ahte dyslexia. )^;
That's the only way I see it working.
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Ah, but as the eminent Mr. Holmes once remarked: "You see...but you do not observe."
For you see there are two other, far more sinister, reasons these paintings might have been stolen.
1)These paintings were stolen "pre-sold" as it were. Paintings this famous are never randomly taken. They would be impossible to sell/fence. In short: This is a contracted job by a collector to whom money is no object. I know, it sounds like something out of James Bond but Interpol will tell you that theifs like this happen more often than people imagine.
2) Narcotics. This is a veriation of the above. The world of big/international narcotics is awash is paper money. So much so that, at the very highest levels, its value as a guarantor/payment has become worth-less. In its place? Works of art (chiefly paintings, for obvious reasons: easy to take, easy to move, easy to transfer, etc.)
Here's how it works: The supplier states his price (Let's say, "The Lacemaker" by Vandermeer). The buyer makes,er,"arrangements" for delivery. The object d'art, instead of money, changes hands and the deal goes through. But in almost all cases the painting does not end up in some private gallery but becomes part of the unoffical currency of this underground economy; passing hand to hand to hand as a guarantor.
The robbery points to either one of these explainations since the thieves knew exactly what paintings to take: they broke in, went staight to the two paintings, took them, and then vanished into the night. In short, this robbery was about as spontaneous as a Swiss watch.
Teach you to misunderestimate Bond, James Bond.
Just try to prove it though. After all, I have had this painting for years, ask anyone. ;~)
I would also arrange the following; a ransom demand, the public destruction of a reproduction of the one I have, with the threat to destroy the other if my demands aren't met and then the return of the other for a huge ransom. This would be done by a separate bunch of crooks. I could even make money on the deal. I would also encourage the original thieves to make and sell as many copies as they could. Nothing like muddying the waters a bit more.
a.cricket
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