“Van Gogh Museum Theft: The Journey of Two Paintings”
By MaryKate Smolenski
citation: Smolenski, MaryKate. “Van Gogh Museum Theft: The Journey of Two Paintings.” The Coalition of Master’s Scholars on Material Culture, August 27, 2021.
When thinking about my favorite art crime, there are so many interesting cases to choose from – the Gardner heist, The Scream theft in Oslo, and even a golden toilet artwork stolen from Blenheim Palace. However, the art crime that I find the most captivating is the 2002 theft at the Vincent Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Van Gogh is one of my favorite artists and as I read more and more about the crime, I realized that it had so many fascinating elements: a tell-all documentary, an Italian mafia leader, a hidden compartment, and a vertical-climb escape! This crime also resulted in the criminals being caught and the artwork returned, a rare occurrence.
The theft occurred on the night of December 7th, 2002, when thieves Octave Durham and Henk Bieslijn, wearing ski masks and baseball hats, scaled the museum. They tied a rope to a flagpole for their exit, and then they used a ladder to climb up and smash one of the security-reinforced glass windows with a sledgehammer. Through the broken window, they entered the gallery that held View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and took the paintings.[1] One, a seascape, was the museum’s only painting from Van Gogh’s Hague period (1881-1883). The other artwork showed a church where Van Gogh’s father was a pastor; the painting was a gift to Van Gogh’s mother in 1884.[2] The church artwork was also the museum’s only painting still in its original stretcher, which was covered in splashes of paint, possibly from Van Gogh cleaning his brushes on it.[3]
While the paintings held major art historical value, thief Octave Durham has stated that they selected the works simply because they were the smallest in the room and closest to their entry point.[4] The theft took only three minutes and forty seconds.[5] The thieves then rappelled out by rope; on his descent, thief Durham hit the ground with force and damaged the corner of the seascape. His hard landing also caused his baseball cap to fall off, which was left behind. The thieves ran to their getaway car and utilized a police scanner to escape.[6] The crime became one of the FBI’s top ten art crimes.
Looted art is difficult to sell, as it cannot be sold on the open market, and the underground black market for art also has its risks. The thieves ultimately sold the paintings to Raffaele Imperiale, a leader of the Amato Pagano clan of the Camorra Italian mafia for reportedly €350,000 in March 2003. The artworks were then sent to Italy. Imperiale likely bought the works of art to use as payment within the mafia, or to use if he was caught to make a deal for a lesser sentence in exchange for offering to help find the stolen art works.
Within six weeks, the two thieves had spent all the money on items like luxury cars, watches, and trips to Disneyland Paris![7] The police were able to identify Durham and Bieslijn with the museum’s security cameras and they were tracked by police for over a year. The thieves’ spending confirmed police suspicions; Bieslijn was arrested and eventually sentenced to four years in jail. Dutch police also went to arrest Durham at his apartment. However, he escaped by climbing up the side of his building, earning him the nickname of “the Monkey.” Police searched his house, but the paintings were not there. After his escape, Durham fled to Spain where he was arrested. Durham’s DNA was matched to the baseball cap left behind and he was sentenced to four and half years in jail. However, he spent only three years in jail; he was released without revealing the whereabouts of the paintings and continuing to assert his innocence. He was later sent back to jail for a failed bank robbery. In 2013, Durham approached the Van Gogh Museum to offer assistance in finding the artworks, but the museum soon ended talks after they learned Durham wanted compensation and because he suggested that the museum buy the artworks back.
Meanwhile, the Italian police began investigating the Amato Pagano clan of the Camorra Mafia, who are associated with international cocaine trafficking and considered extremely active and dangerous. Imperiale, who had purchased the paintings, ran into legal troubles in 2013-14 and fled to Dubai to avoid extradition. In January 2016, Italian prosecutors arrested several members involved in the Amato Pagano and were informed that the two Van Gogh paintings were in a Camorra house in Castellammare di Stabia, outside Naples, once occupied by Imperiale. In September 2016, the Chief Public Prosecutor of Naples announced that the two paintings were recovered.[8] The paintings were found hidden in a secret wall cavity next to the kitchen, just like a scene out of a movie!
The works returned to Amsterdam and were on display at the Van Gogh Museum from March to May 2017 without their frames, showing the visible damage from the theft. They were then sent to be restored. At the same time, a new forty-five minute documentary focusing on the thief Octave Durham aired called Stealing Van Gogh.[9] After years of claiming innocence, Durham confessed in the documentary, which had no legal impact for him, having already served his time for the crime. Durham bragged about the theft and other crimes, yet he took no part in assisting in the return of the paintings. The museum was, justly, angered by the spotlight the documentary shines on Durham, who showed a lack of remorse.[10]
Today, the works are back on display. This is the only crime on the FBI’s top ten art crimes that has been resolved and reflects how only roughly ten percent of art crimes are solved. Based on this statistic, it is remarkable that the works were recovered and with relatively little damage. Fifteen years after being stolen, the artworks were amazingly recovered and can once again be utilized by scholars and the public to learn about and appreciate Van Gogh’s early career. This whirlwind crime piqued my interest and as I keep researching, the more fascinating I found it; I hope you enjoyed learning about this art crime and the happy ending of its return to a museum!
Endnotes
[1] Isaac Kaplan, “Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga,” Artsy, March 21, 2017, https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-made-14-year-saga.
[2] Kaplan, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga."
[3] Van Gogh Museum, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Recovered after 14 Years,” accessed November 3, 2019, https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/press-releases/two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-recovered-after-14-years?v=1.
[4] Kaplan, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga."
[5] Kaplan, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga."
[6] Kaplan, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga."
[7] Natalie Corner, “How Criminals Turn Priceless Artwork into Millions,” Daily Mail Online, January 30, 2018, https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5317127/How-criminals-turn-priceless-artwork-millions.html.
[8] Van Gogh Museum, “Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Recovered after 14 Years.”
[9] Kaplan, “Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga.”
[10]Kaplan, "Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga."
Bibliography
Bailey, Martin. “Two Stolen Van Goghs Go Back on Display after 14-Year Ordeal at the Hands of Italian Gangsters.” The Art Newspaper, April 18, 2019. http://www.theartnewspaper.com/blog/two-stolen-van-goghs-go-on-display-after-recovery-from-the-italian-mafia.
Corner, Natalie. “How Criminals Turn Priceless Artwork into Millions.” Daily Mail Online, January 30, 2018. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-5317127/How-criminals-turn-priceless-artwork-millions.html.
FBI.gov. “Van Gogh Museum Robbery — FBI.” Accessed November 3, 2019. https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/violent-crime/art-theft/fbi-top-ten-art-crimes/van-gogh-museum-robbery.
INTERPOL. “The Issues – Cultural Property.” Accessed November 3, 2019. https://www.interpol.int/Crimes/Cultural-heritage-crime/The-issues-cultural-property.
Kaplan, Isaac. “Two Stolen van Gogh Paintings Have Finally Made It Home after a 14-Year Saga.” Artsy, March 21, 2017. https://www.artsy.net/article/artsy-editorial-two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-made-14-year-saga.
Van Gogh Museum. “Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Recovered after 14 Years.” Accessed November 3, 2019. https://www.vangoghmuseum.nl/en/news-and-press/press-releases/two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-recovered-after-14-years?v=1.