Results for “Dutch”
Han van Meegeren
The most celebrated forger of the twentieth century, van Meegeren deceived critics and collectors with 'newly discovered' Vermeers. When one of his forgeries was traced to Hermann Göring, he was charged with collaboration — and confessed to forgery to save himself from a treason charge, painting a Vermeer in front of the court to prove his skill.
Arthur Brand
Dubbed the 'Indiana Jones of the art world', Arthur Brand is a Dutch art detective who has recovered a remarkable string of stolen and looted works by working the grey zone between the underworld and the market. His finds include the monumental bronze horses sculpted for Hitler's Reich Chancellery ('Hitler's Horses'), a Picasso portrait of Dora Maar missing for two decades, Oscar Wilde's ring, and a Van Gogh spirited away during the pandemic. He operates through informants and patient negotiation rather than force, arguing that most stolen art is never sold but circulates as underworld collateral.
Robert Driessen
Dutch forger who produced roughly a thousand fake Giacometti sculptures as part of a major German-run fraud ring uncovered in 2009. He later openly sold acknowledged 'forgeries' as legal replicas, insisting his skill rivalled the masters he copied.
Geert Jan Jansen
Dutch forger who flooded the European market with fakes attributed to Karel Appel, Picasso, Matisse, and others — reportedly so convincing that Appel himself once authenticated a Jansen forgery. Arrested in France in 1994, he was released on a technicality and now sells signed 'Jansen' works openly.
Octave “Okkie” Durham - The Dutch Lupin
On December 7, 2002, Octave “Okkie” Durham and an accomplice broke into Amsterdam’s Van Gogh Museum, smashed a window and escaped with two paintings. The entire operation took around three minutes and forty seconds. No elaborate disguises or Hollywood-style gadgets—just a ladder, a hammer and a serious security problem. The stolen works were View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882) and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884). DNA evidence helped identify Durham, who was arrested in Spain in 2003 and later imprisoned. He never revealed where the paintings were hidden. The Van Goghs remained missing until 2016, when Italian police discovered them during a raid on a property linked to Raffaele Imperiale, a figure associated with the Camorra criminal organization. After fourteen years in the underworld, the paintings finally returned to Amsterdam. Durham’s story took another turn when he began working with Dutch art detective Arthur Brand. In 2023, he helped facilitate the return of Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, stolen from the Singer Laren museum in 2020. The painting was delivered to Brand in a blue IKEA bag. Art recovery, apparently, doesn't always require white gloves. Durham says he no longer steals art, instead using his underworld connections to help recover it. There’s a certain irony in a convicted art thief becoming an asset to investigators, but he knows how the stolen art world operates because he once worked inside it. He stole two Van Goghs in under four minutes. Getting them home took fourteen years. These days, he seems more interested in opening doors than breaking windows.
Singer Laren
The Dutch museum from which a Van Gogh was stolen in 2020 — on the painter's birthday, during lockdown.
Three Decades On, the Gardner Reward Still Stands at $10 Million
The museum reaffirms its offer as investigators mark another anniversary of the unsolved 1990 heist.
Who's Afraid of a Red, Yellow and Boxcutter
Dutch painter Gerard Jan van Bladeren slashed Barnett Newman's monumental 'Who's Afraid of Red, Yellow and Blue III' dozens of times — and its controversial restoration was later attacked as more damaging than the knife.