A 58-year-old man suspected of stealing a painting by painter Vincent van Gogh and another by master Frans Hals from museums in the Netherlands last year was arrested on Tuesday, Dutch police say.
The suspect, from Baarn, in the center of the Netherlands, was arrested Tuesday morning at his home, added the police, which evokes a "milestone" in the investigation.
The works, respectively entitled "The Garden of the presbytery of Nuenen in the spring" and "Two young laughing boys", have not yet been found, said the police in a statement.
In both cases, the day of the theft corresponded to a symbolic date.
The first mischief dates back a year: the perpetrator (s) took advantage of the closure of public places to enter the Singer Laren museum, about thirty kilometers from Amsterdam.
They force the glass front door of the museum in the night, a few days after the first confinement, and steal a painting by Vincent van Gogh.
It is about the “garden of the presbytery of Nuenen in the spring”, painted in 1884. The theft occurs, to the day, 167 years after the birth of the Dutch post-impressionist master, on March 30, 1853.
A few months later, a painting by the great master of the golden age of Flemish painting Frans Hals, "Two laughing young boys", was in turn stolen at dawn, for the third time, from a museum in the town of Leerdam (Netherlands), 60 km south of Amsterdam.
There again, the burglary was committed on the anniversary of the death of Frans Hals, who died in 1666 on August 26 ...
Works estimated at several million euros
Frans Hals was a contemporary of Rembrandt and Vermeer, great masters of the Dutch Golden Age, a period marked in the 17th century by the country's heyday in the fields of commerce, art and colonial expansion.
He is known for his numerous portraits, notably “The Laughing Cavalier”, which is in the Wallace Collection in London or “La Bohémienne”, which belongs to the Louvre in Paris.
"The hunt is on" to find this "very important and precious painting by Frans Hals", tweeted at the time the Dutch detective Arthur Brand, specializing in the theft of works of art and nicknamed "the Indiana Jones of world of the arts ”.
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According to him, the value of van Gogh's painting is estimated at between one and six million euros.
Arthur Brand had received two photos of the painting two months after the theft, along with a dated front page from the New York Times newspaper, proving, according to him, that the stolen work still exists.
He speaks today of a "huge success" for the Dutch police.
Breaking: Another huge success for Dutch Police.
This morning a suspect has been arrested in connection with last years theft of the Van Gogh painting 'Lentetuin' in the Netherlands.
The plot thickens ... pic.twitter.com/StsngPiyrS
- Arthur Brand (@brand_arthur) April 6, 2021
"For months, intensive investigations into the theft of the two paintings were carried out under the direction of the prosecution," ultimately leading to the arrest of the suspect, police said.
