Netherlands police arrested a suspect during April 2021 in the theft last year of two valuable paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Frans Hals from different museums, however the paintings remain missing.A 58-year-old man was arrested at his home in the town of Baarn, 40 kilometers (25 miles) southeast of Amsterdam. His identity was not released, in line with Dutch privacy guidelines. Unfortunately the paintings were not recovered and the investigation is ongoing although this is a really important step in the investigation.
Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884 was stolen from the Singer Laren museum east of Amsterdam in the early hours of March 30, 2020. The museum was closed at the time due to a coronavirus lockdown. The 25-by-57-centimeter (10-by-22-inch) oil-on-paper painting shows a person standing in a garden surrounded by trees with a church tower in the background.
Van Gogh’s ‘The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884,’ which was stolen from a museum in the Netherlands in March 2020.
The Hals work, Two Laughing Boys, was stolen some five months later from Museum Hofje van Mevrouw van Aerden in Leerdam, 60 kilometers (about 35 miles) south of Amsterdam.
Frans Hals’ ‘Two Laughing Boys’ was stolen from a different Netherlands museum in August 2020.
The Van Gogh painting was on loan from the Groninger Museum in the Netherlands when a burglar smashed through reinforced glass doors to get into the Singer Laren museum, which is less than 10 kilometers (6 miles) from the town where the suspect was arrested.
A spokes person from the Singer Laren museum spokeswoman welcomed the arrest and hopes it leads detectives to the painting. The most important thing is that the painting returns as quickly as possible to the Groninger Museum, where it belongs.
Police said last year that the same Hals painting was stolen in 1988 together with a work by Jacob van Ruisdael. Both were recovered three years later. In 2011, the two paintings were again stolen and recovered six months later.