Case · Theft
The Singer Laren Van Gogh Theft
Stolen from a shuttered museum during lockdown
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Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
On Van Gogh's birthday in 2020, while the museum was closed for the pandemic, a thief smashed the doors and took 'The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring'. It was recovered in 2023.
The burglary, captured on CCTV, took only minutes; the small early Van Gogh was on loan from the Groninger Museum. A man was later convicted, aided by video and a botched attempt to leverage the painting as a bargaining chip in a drug case.
The painting resurfaced in 2023, delivered to an art-crime investigator in an IKEA bag, damaged but restorable.