The Stolen Van Goghs
The Story Behind the Sensational Theft of The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen and 47 Other Paintings
In March 2020, thieves take a sledgehammer to the front door of the Singer Laren Museum. They make off with The Parsonage Garden in Nuenen in Springtime, part of a series Van Gogh painted while staying with his parents in 1884. The following afternoon, journalist Lex Boon rushes to the press conference given by the depressed curator, sensing a story. What he uncovers is not just the theft of this particular painting but dozens more.
Boon tries to find out how likely it is that the painting will be recovered. While at first it appears seven of Van Gogh’s works are missing from museums all over the world, the Art Loss Register lists sixty missing paintings. His search for answers leads to the stories of twenty Van Gogh heists, from wartime plundering at the site of Operation Market Garden to paintings stolen from the Amsterdam house of a boxer-turned-casino-owner, to the Napolitan mafia, Venezuelan guerillas and a ‘drunken sailor’ in Paris. What happens to the works?
He seeks contact with former Van Gogh thieves, such as the tram conductor responsible for the theft of twenty paintings from the Van Gogh Museum thirty years ago. Meanwhile, he maintains close contact with two art detectives, arch rivals Arthur Brand and Ben Zuidema, who have differing theories about what happened to the painting stolen from the Singer Laren, and sees the museum director struggling with the dark side of the art world. In the end, The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen is returned, in a roundabout manner, thanks to Arthur Brand.
Pacy narrative non-fiction that arose out of a lockdown project
Back matter includes a chronological catalogue of 48 stolen Van Goghs as well as if and when they were returned
Contains intriguing details about displaced art and geopolitics. One stolen Van Gogh is not actually missing but in the Hermitage in St Petersburg, while still officially designated as stolen
“The Stolen Van Goghs is an infectious quest filled with razor-sharp observations.”
“Journalist Lex Boon wanted to write about a single art heist but ended up on a lengthy, colourful pursuit of more. The characters in his book appeal even more to the imagination than the vanished paintings do.”
