Early Van Gogh painting stolen from Dutch museum

Vincent van Gogh’s "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring" (1884). The painting was stolen overnight on Monday, March 30, 2020, from a small museum in Laren in the Netherlands, just 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam, on what would have been the artist’s 167th birthday. Groninger Museum via The New York Times.

BERLIN (NYT NEWS SERVICE).- A Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen early Monday from a small museum in Laren in the Netherlands, just 20 miles southeast of Amsterdam, on what would have been the artist’s 167th birthday.

“I feel enormous anger and sadness,” Jan Rudolph de Lorm, the museum’s director, said. “Because especially in these dark days that we are in, I feel so strongly that art is here to comfort us, to inspire us and to heal us.”

Police were called to the Singer Laren museum at 3:15 a.m. Monday, when an alarm went off. By the time they got there, the thief or thieves were already gone, said a spokeswoman for the Dutch police.

All police found was a shattered glass door and a bare spot on the wall where the painting was displayed. Hours later, authorities announced that the work, “The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring,” was taken.

The heist comes as museums in much of Europe and the United States are closed in attempts to stem the spread of the coronavirus. It also comes eight years after a spectacular breach at a museum in Rotterdam, where thieves made off with seven paintings valued at more than 100 million euros (about $110 million) by forcing an emergency exit, exposing the relatively weak security systems at some art museums.

Coronavirus or not, guards are not usually posted at the museum overnight. The alarm system is linked straight to the local police.

“They knew what they were doing, going straight for the famous master,” de Lorm said. Police agreed that it would have taken minutes from the time of forced entry to leaving the premises.

The painting was on loan from the Gröninger Museum for a special exhibition, “Mirror of the Soul,” which was to run from January to May. “It’s an early picture, before Arles and before Paris, so it is darker and less recognizable as a van Gogh,” said Andreas Blühm, director of the Gröninger.

Because of the coronavirus outbreak, museums in the Netherlands closed March 13, and the Singer Laren had announced it would be closed until at least June 1.

© 2020 The New York Times Company

https://artdaily.cc/news/122208/Early-Van-Gogh-painting-stolen-from-Dutch-museum

Thieves Were Caught Attempting to Steal Medieval Stones From Notre-Dame Cathedral During Paris’s Citywide Lockdown

Two men were taken into custody after attempting to heist stones to sell the black market, according to a spokesperson for the cathedral.

A photograph taken on December 26, 2019, shows a giant crane outside the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris, which was partially destroyed when fire broke out beneath the roof on April 15, 2019. (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN / AFP) (Photo by STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN/AFP via Getty Images)

Since the devastating fire that nearly leveled Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral last April, the iconic French landmark has been undergoing an unprecedented restoration. But intensifying quarantine measures in France have halted those recovery efforts indefinitely last week—and two would-be thieves attempted to take advantage of the situation.

The thieves allegedly broke into the construction site and attempted to sack several fallen stones from inside the cathedral. According to Le Parisien, which first reported the news, the two men were apprehended by guards who spotted them in the early evening on March 17. A spokesperson for Notre Dame says it is believed that the men intended to sell the stones illicitly on the black market and that they had likely broken in through a fault in the construction site.

The construction site remains guarded 24 hours a day despite the construction pause.

Notre Dame is devoid of tourists, two women stand outside the emblematic monument on March 9, 2020 in Paris. Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images.

The recent halt in construction will likely put a dent in the five-year timeline for restoration established by French Prime minister Emmanuel Macron—a timeline many experts already found hasty. Meanwhile, the delicate process of removing melted scaffolding, which has threatened the stability of the building since the blaze, was scheduled to begin on March 23, adding further concerns to the future of the continuously imperiled edifice. Reconstruction efforts were previously stalled when the cathedral’s debris was found to be giving off dangerous levels of toxic lead pollution.

Nevertheless, the eight months of restoration thus far have been eye-opening both to scientists and historians with new insights about the process of the cathedral’s construction from the 12th to 14th century, and the discovery of remnants of earlier church structure incorporated into the overarching plan, according to a recent article by Science magazine.

The hiatus at Notre Dame is just one of the many measures taken to protect public health in France, including the closure of all museums and limiting gatherings to 100 people.

Katie White, March 23, 2020

https://news.artnet.com/art-world/thieves-plunder-notre-dame-stones-renovation-pause-1812831

Three Paintings, Including a Major Van Dyck, Stolen from Oxford University Gallery

Antony Van Dyck, 'A Soldier on Horseback', ca. 1616. COURTESY CHRIST CHURCH PICTURE GALLERY

Over the weekend, three paintings, including a significant work by the Flemish painter Anthony van Dyck, were stolen from a gallery at Oxford University’s Christ Church college, in what local police are calling a “high-value burglary.”

Van Dyck’s A Soldier on Horseback (1616), Salvator Rosa’s A Rocky Coast, with Soldiers Studying a Plan (1640s), and Annibale Carracci’s A Boy Drinking (1580) were taken from the Christ Church Picture Gallery late Saturday night. A report by the Times estimated that the works pilfered from the British museum could be worth an estimated £10 million (or about $12.2 million).

Inspector Jon Capps, of the Thames Valley Police, said in a statement, “The artwork has not yet been recovered but a thorough investigation is under way to find it and bring those responsible to justice. There will be an increased police presence in the area while officers and staff carry out enquiries.” Police are currently appealing for any information from the public on the break-in, and officials have not yet provided an explanation for how the thieves entered the museum and how the works were taken.

A Christ Church college spokesperson told the Guardian that the gallery will be closed until further notice.

The paintings by Carracci and Van Dyck were among a bequest of General John Guise in 1765 of more than 200 paintings and nearly 2,000 drawings to Oxford University. Rosa’s A Rocky Coast was bequeathed by Sir Richard Nosworthy in 1966. Van Dyck’s current auction record stands at $13.5 million, for a self-portrait sold at Sotheby’s London auction house in 2009.

BY TESSA SOLOMON, March 16, 2020 2:47pm
https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/van-dyck-stolen-christ-church-oxford-1202681215/

Gardner Museum launches audio walk detailing infamous Museum theft and thirteen stolen artworks

In this Thursday, March 11, 2010 file photo, empty frames from which thieves took "Storm on the Sea of Galilee," left background, by Rembrandt and "The Concert," right foreground, by Vermeer, remain on display at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston.

BOSTON, MASS.- Marking the 30th anniversary of the infamous Gardner Museum theft, the Gardner Museum announced a new audio walk detailing the theft and honoring the thirteen stolen artworks, available to visitors onsite and via the Museum’s mobile-friendly website beginning March 4, 2020.

In the early morning hours of March 18, 1990, a pair of thieves disguised as Boston police officers entered the Museum and left with thirteen works of art including Vermeer’s The Concert, Rembrandt’s Christ in the Storm on the Sea of Galilee and A Lady and Gentleman in Black, Manet’s Chez Tortoni, and Edgar Degas’ Leaving the Paddock. The theft of more than $500 million worth of artwork remains the largest unsolved art heist in history. Today, the stolen artworks are remembered in the Museum’s galleries by their empty frames, which hang in their original locations on the gallery walls.

Now, visitors to the Gardner Museum will be able to recount the theft in a newly released audio walk narrated by Anthony Amore, the Museum’s Director of Security, and Nathaniel Silver, William and Lia Poorvu Curator of the Collection. The new audio walk is the most comprehensive and official account of the theft provided by the Museum, including an immersive retracing of the thieves' path throughout the Museum’s galleries that night, and detailing the thirteen missing works of art and their importance—considered amongst the most valuable stolen objects in the world.

“This was a horrific robbery. A robbery that deprived not just the Gardner Museum—but more importantly the public—of some of the greatest masterpieces in the world,” said Amore. “Our hope is that the audio walk will not only help visitors learn more about the Gardner Museum theft, but also appreciate and come to know more about these incredible missing works of art that we're still working to recover.”

Among the works taken that night included Rembrandt’s only seascape; and one of only 36 known paintings made by Vermeer.

The Dutch Room. Image by Sean Dungan.

Dutch Room PDF Full Artwork Listing: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/sites/default/files/uploads/files/Dutch%20Room%20Guide.pdf

Throughout the audio walk, Amore shares insights into the thieves’ thinking and decisions made as they moved through the Museum during the theft’s 81 minutes. Curator Nathaniel Silver details not only the beauty and importance of the missing artworks, but also a look into Isabella Stewart Gardner’s deliberate choices of installation in the gallery spaces, and the “visual conversations” she created between works of art throughout the Museum.

“Our intention is always to keep present the memory and images of these masterworks until we can celebrate their return. This audio walk helps visitors to imagine what’s no longer there, and in doing so evokes Isabella’s original intention for these galleries,” said Silver. “We mourn the losses from the theft with the empty places left on the wall—but Isabella’s vision persists, in the more than sixteen thousand objects still in the collection, the galleries she installed them in, and the museum she created to house them.”

The audio walk will be available to stream for free via mobile phones, and handheld audio walk devices are available for rental at the Museum for $5.

The search for the missing works remains part of an active and ongoing investigation, and the Gardner Museum is offering at $10 million reward for information that leads directly to the recovery of all the stolen works in good condition. Find more information about the reward, the audio walk, and other resources about the theft, at: https://www.gardnermuseum.org/about/theft.

“We want everyone to know what these works look like because although they are gone—for now—they are not forgotten,” said Amore. “We look forward to the day when they can take their rightful place again so that our visitors can enjoy them in person.

https://artdaily.cc/news/121453/Gardner-Museum-launches-audio-walk-detailing-infamous-Museum-theft-and-thirteen-stolen-artworks#.XmJtv6hKiUk