The stolen Van Gogh was returned in an IKEA bag

The painting has been recovered by Arthur Brand. The art detective claims that the 139-year-old painting was hand-delivered to him by a man wrapped in a pillow and placed in an Ikea bag.

Arthur Brand, the name of the man who recovered the piece, explained that a man who came to his door handed him the 139-year-old painting in a pillow and an Ikea bag. “I did this in full coordination with the Dutch police and we knew this guy was not involved in the theft.”

In 2021, a person was sentenced to eight years in prison for stealing one of the artist Vincent Van Gogh’s earliest paintings from 1844, which was on display in a temporary exhibition at the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam. By then the painting ‘Rectory Garden in Nuenen in Spring’, valued at several million euros, had already changed hands.

After the pandemic and the closure of the museums, the thief took the opportunity to smash the two glass doors of the museum with a sledgehammer and leave with the painting under his arm. Months later, the police arrested the people involved, but they did not find the stolen Van Gogh. The work had been acquired by another criminal group.

Since then, Detective Arthur Brand, also known as “the Indiana Jones of the art world” for his extensive experience in recovering stolen works of art, began to investigate the case in detail. Brand, who has collaborated with the Dutch police, knew that after the first conviction, others in possession of the work would not dare sell it and that it would pass from one group to another in the criminal world.

But it was not without damage: in all its mysterious handling over the past three years, Van Gogh’s painting came back with a few scratches, so it is now undergoing restoration and, once ready, will be returned to its original home at the Groninger Museum.

But why was it returned? The detective explained that since the thieves had been convicted, the painting had lost virtually all its value and the person who owned it risked a substantial fine of up to millions of dollars.

It was not clear how the painting got to the person who had it: he had sent a message to Detective Brand, offering him the painting in exchange for anonymity and to stay out of trouble. That is all that is known, as the authorities did not disclose many details either.

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