A Remarkable Hostage-Like Photograph Showing ‘Proof of Life’ of a Stolen Van Gogh Painting Is Circulating in the Criminal Underworld

An incredible photograph of a
missing Van Gogh painting that was stolen from a Dutch museum
in March has been discovered
circulating in the criminal underworld. The hostage-style picture
presents the painting alongside a copy of the May 30 edition of
the New York Times and a biography of a master
art thief.

The Dutch art sleuth Arthur
Brand, who has helped uncover valuable stolen artworks
including a Picasso
portrait and
a pair of medieval
stone reliefs, shared
the astonishing photograph on his Twitter account. The artwork has
been missing since it was stolen from Laren three months ago, but
Brand has been on the case, taking it as a “personal insult” that
the theft occurred on his home turf.

“This is good news,” Brand tells
Artnet News of the image. “Sometimes criminals get nervous when
they can’t immediately sell a work or they think police are on
their tail and they destroy it.”

Brand leaned on his network to
get his hands on the photograph, which he says is going around
mafia circles. Unlike in a real hostage situation, Brand says, it
is unlikely that the thief is holding up the painting for ransom,
and is more likely circulating the image because he or she is
trying to find a buyer. The theft has the hallmarks of an
“absolutely professional” operation, according to Brand,
particularly since the thief knew to include an image of the back
of the painting, which often contains information that only the
owners would know and rules out the possibility that the work could
be a forgery.

Another strange clue in the
picture: a copy of Meesterdief (Masterthief),
the 2018 Dutch-language biography
of Octave Durham, an art thief who went to prison for stealing two
Van Goghs from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002. Brand says that this
gives credence to his theory that the theft from the Singer-Laren
museum was a copycat of Durham’s infamous heist, which was a
similar smash-and grab situation. The Parsonage Garden at
Nuenen in Spring (1884) was on loan from the Groninger Museum
when it was taken under cover of darkness.

Durham, who has been released
from prison, is not a suspect. Brand says he verified that the
ex-con has the “perfect alibi,” having been in the hospital at the
time of the crime. For his part, Durham is not flattered by the
comparison, telling the New York
Times last month
that the Laren theft was amateurish.

Brand says that high-profile
stolen paintings like the Van Gogh are hard to sell on the black
market, and that the small canvas would only fetch a fraction of
its market worth. Its whereabouts are more likely to be used as a
bargaining chip with authorities to negotiate a more lenient
sentence, as happened with other Van Gogh thefts in the Netherlands
in the 1990s and in 2002 (Durham’s heist), when the eventual
owners, an Italian drug lord and a mafia boss, used them to make a
deal with law enforcement.

Brand is continuing to investigate the theft independently, but
he says he is working closely with Dutch authorities to share any
pertinent information that would lead to the recovery of the
painting.

The post A Remarkable Hostage-Like Photograph Showing ‘Proof
of Life’ of a Stolen Van Gogh Painting Is Circulating in the
Criminal Underworld appeared first on artnet News.