Newly released security camera footage shows how a painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen from the the Singer Laren museum in the Netherlands in March. Video shared with the Guardian shows an individual breaking through the museum’s glass doors using a sledgehammer and leaving with van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring (1884).
The painting, which is believed to be worth millions of dollars, had been on loan to the Singer Laren from the Groninger Museum voor Stad en Lande in the Netherlands. According to the Guardian, Dutch police have not released other video footage and no arrests have been made in connection with the crime.
[See a list of van Gogh’s best paintings, according to eight international curators.]
Evert van Os, managing director of the Singer Laren, told the Guardian that “the burglar broke through a number of doors and several layers of security that had been approved by security experts,” adding that “the footage released does not therefore allow any conclusions to be drawn as to the quality of security at Singer Laren.”
The investigation into the burglary is ongoing, and police reportedly received 56 tips on April 22 as a result of the release of the security camera footage. Police spokesperson Maren Wonder told the Guardian that it appears the van Gogh painting was “very deliberately targeted.”
Van Gogh’s The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, which depicts a lone figure and a small church in a gloomy garden, was created early in the artist’s career. He painted the work while living in the Dutch town of Nuenen, prior to his time in France.