Case · Theft
The Van Gogh Museum Robbery
Two early Van Goghs, recovered from the Camorra
Share
Image: Wikimedia Commons (public domain)
Thieves used a ladder to enter the Van Gogh Museum in 2002 and made off with two paintings. They resurfaced fourteen years later in the hands of a Naples crime family.
The stolen works — 'View of the Sea at Scheveningen' and 'Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen' — were among the artist's early paintings. Two men were convicted of the burglary, but the paintings themselves stayed missing.
In 2016 Italian police discovered them in a farmhouse near Naples during an investigation into the Camorra's cocaine trafficking. Restored, both returned to Amsterdam.