The figures on Van Gogh thefts are chilling: 50 work, drawings and prints seized in 24 incidents since 1958. That is revealed in Lex Boon’s e-book De gestolen Van Goghs (The Stolen Van Goghs), which information how the artist’s work has been focused.
Van Gogh’s The Bed room (October 1888) and Sunflowers (January 1889)
Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam (Vincent van Gogh Basis)
By far probably the most critical theft befell within the early hours of 14 April 1991, when 20 work have been seized by armed robbers on the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. These included masterpieces such because the Sunflowers (January 1889) and The Bed room (October 1888). The thieves deserted their getaway automotive a couple of kilometres away and fled, with police recovering the works minutes later. Three work have been scratched, however thankfully the rest weren’t significantly broken. The boys have been later convicted and safety on the museum was upgraded.
Of the remaining thefts recorded by Boon, all concerned single works, aside from incidents involving two or three work on every event in 1965, 1988, 1990, 1998 and 2002.
Disturbingly, two work have been stolen twice. The watercolour Breton Girls within the Meadow (after Emile Bernard) (December 1888) was seized from Milan’s Galleria d’Arte Moderna on 17 February 1975 and recovered on 6 April. 5 weeks later, on 15 Could, the Van Gogh was stolen once more together with different works. It was then recovered on 1 November 1975.
Van Gogh’s Breton Girls within the Meadow (after Emile Bernard) (December 1888)
Galleria d’Arte Moderna, Milan
The opposite portray which has been stolen twice is Vase with Flowers (summer season 1886), from Cairo’s Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum. It was taken in 1978 and recovered two years later. In 2010 it was stolen once more, ensuing within the closure of the museum for over a decade. The Cairo museum was reopened in 2021, however the nonetheless life has nonetheless not been recovered.
Van Gogh’s Vase with Flowers (summer season 1886)
Mohamed Mahmoud Khalil Museum, Cairo
Three different Van Goghs stay unrecovered, so any data on their attainable whereabouts could be most welcome. Panorama within the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (October 1889) was stolen in 1980 from a personal residence in Paris. A windblown Tree (August-September 1883) was additionally with a personal collector when it was seized in Zurich in 1987. The drawing Lady sitting by the Fireplace, peeling Potatoes (Could-June 1885) was taken from the Van Buuren Museum in Brussels in 2013.
Van Gogh’s Panorama within the neighbourhood of Saint-Rémy (October 1889), A windblown Tree (August-September 1883) and Lady sitting by the Fireplace, peeling Potatoes (Could-June 1885)
Non-public assortment, Paris; personal assortment, Zurich; Van Buuren Museum, Brussels
The excellent news is that Van Gogh works appear to be turning into more and more safe. Through the interval 1958-99 there have been 18 thefts, however since 2000 there have been solely six. Additionally it is encouraging that with 50 stolen work, all however 4 have been recovered.
Wartime loss
Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Backyard with Figures (November 1885)
The Parsonage Backyard with Figures (November 1885) is recorded within the 1970 Van Gogh catalogue raisonné by Jacob Baart de la Faille as “destroyed within the Battle of Arnhem, 1944”, within the east of the Netherlands close to the German border. Boon has investigated the case, uncovering proof which means that the image might effectively have survived.
The portray’s former proprietor, Adriaan Pieter van Hoey Smith (1893-1967), reported it as stolen quickly after the conflict. In 1964 he wrote to the de la Faille committee, saying that his Van Gogh had “disappeared” throughout the Arnhem battle. However the committee mistakenly concluded that the image had been “destroyed”.
Boon concludes: “The final recognized location of the portray was a home in Oosterbeek, whose villagers have been evacuated throughout the Battle of Arnhem. I imagine that the Van Gogh was most likely looted by the Germans. It’s subsequently attainable the portray survives and will sooner or later flip up.”
Martin Bailey is a number one Van Gogh specialist and particular correspondent for The Artwork Newspaper. Bailey has curated Van Gogh exhibitions on the Barbican Artwork Gallery, Compton Verney/Nationwide Gallery of Scotland and Tate Britain.
Martin Bailey’s current Van Gogh books
Bailey has written plenty of bestselling books on Van Gogh’s years in France: The Sunflowers Are Mine: The Story of Van Gogh’s Masterpiece (Frances Lincoln 2013 (UK and US), Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence (Frances Lincoln 2016 (UK and US), Starry Evening: Van Gogh on the Asylum (White Lion Publishing 2018, UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale: Auvers and the Artist’s Rise to Fame (Frances Lincoln 2021, UK and US). The Sunflowers are Mine (UK and US) and Van Gogh’s Finale (UK and US) are additionally now out there in a extra compact paperback format. Residing with Vincent van Gogh: the Properties and Landscapes that formed the Artist (White Lion Publishing 2019, UK and US) supplies an outline of the artist’s life. The Illustrated Provence Letters of Van Gogh has been reissued (Batsford 2021, UK and US). My Good friend Van Gogh/Emile Bernard supplies the primary English translation of Bernard’s writings on Van Gogh (David Zwirner Books 2023, UK and US).
To contact Martin Bailey, please e-mail [email protected]. Please observe that he doesn’t undertake authentications.
Learn extra from Martin’s Adventures with Van Gogh weblog right here.
