The 1884 painting by Vincent van Gogh which was stolen during a dramatic nighttime museum robbery in the Netherlands will be on public display in March for the first time since it was taken three years ago, The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
"Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring", with a deep white scratch from the theft at the bottom of the canvas, was shown at a press conference at the Groninger Museum this week. The image was stolen from the Singer Laren Museum, in the Netherlands, on March 30, 2020, exactly when the Covid-19 pandemic led stores, galleries and museums to close their doors to the public.
For years, the whereabouts of the paintings were unknown, although the person who stole it, nicknamed "Nils M" by the Dutch media, and the criminal who allegedly planned the theft, Peter Roy K, had already been arrested and were serving prison sentences. prison.
Arthur Brand, the art detective who gained fame recovering a variety of treasures including a painting of Picasso and a ring owned by Oscar Wilde, recovered the work late last year, although not through any detective work of his own.
According to Brand, he heard a knock on his door late at night last year. An unidentified man handed Brand a crumpled blue IKEA bag and quickly left. The meeting had been pre-arranged and the police alerted, but Brand said he still ran up the stairs of his Amsterdam apartment and excitedly opened the delivery. Inside, wrapped in bubble wrap, was the Van Gogh. Brand asked a colleague to film the opening of the package and then compared the back of the work with a "proof of life" photograph they had sent him.
According to Brand, the painting probably passed from hand to hand in the criminal underworld, without anyone wanting to sell it or fence it because, with a value between €3 million and €6 million (about US$3.5 million to US $6.5 million), the risk was not worth the reward.
"We knew the painting would pass from one hand to another in the criminal world, but that no one really wanted to touch it because it wasn't worth anything," Brand told The Guardian. "I was a little cursed."
The image's restorer at the Rotterdam Museum, Marjan de Visser, told The Guardian that the scratch on the canvas is "severe" and "goes through all the layers, the varnish, the paint layers and then gets to the bottom layer."
Dust and dirt have been removed from the canvas and de Visser is researching previous restorations and the original materials used so he can properly restore the painting.
The painting will be available for public viewing from March 29 at the Groninger Museum in the north of the Netherlands.