Two men tried to steal a painting by Claude Monet from a Dutch museum, but they were unsuccessful and hurriedly left the scene empty-handed, according to local police.
Shots were fired during the abortive robbery at the Zaans Museum in Zaandam, north of Amsterdam.
This exchange of fire did not injure anyone, according to investigators.
The oil canvas concerned,
De Voorzaan en de Westerhem
by Claude Monet, is being analyzed to assess the potential damage it may have suffered, the museum told CNN.
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The attempted theft took place at around 10:30 a.m. on Sunday.
According to Dutch media NOS, museum teams and visitors present intervened and managed to prevent the theft.
The two fled aboard a black scooter, which was later found by police.
"We are relieved that no one was injured, and that the two men did not manage to steal anything,"
museum director Marieke Verweij told CNN.
She adds that her teams were
"very shocked"
by the incident.
Zaandam, source of inspiration for Monet
The museum was temporarily closed on Monday.
It reopened to visitors on Tuesday, although the canvas was removed from the "Monet in Zaandam" exhibition.
“We are currently evaluating whether the canvas was damaged during the incident, which means that we cannot exhibit at this time,”
explains Marieke Verweij.
The work, which depicts ships navigating the Zaan River, was acquired by the museum in 2015 at a cost of 1.16 million euros.
Claude Monet painted the scene during a trip to Zaandam in 1872. This landscape is actually the view the painter had from the pier of the hotel where he stayed with his wife and son for four months. .
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Zaandam turned out to be a source of inspiration for the artist, who produced 25 canvases and 9 drawings of the city, according to the Zaans museum. In a letter written to another impressionist painter, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet explained that Zaandam had
"
enough
to paint for a lifetime"
. To praise his friend the merits of the city, the painter mentioned in the mail the mills, the colored houses and the
“exquisite boats”
. Windmills appear on the canvas, overlooking the red-roofed houses in the background. The two men suspected of the attempted robbery are still at large, and Dutch police have issued a call for witnesses.