Stolen Van Gogh paintings seized in raid on Mafia

ITALIAN police have recovered two paintings by the Dutch artist Vincent van Gogh that were stolen in Amsterdam 14 years ago, as part of an operation against the Camorra Mafia group that operates around Naples.

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam said the paintings had been removed from their frames but appeared to have suffered only slight damage. It was not immediately clear when they would be returned to the museum, which is the largest repository of Van Gogh’s work.

The paintings, Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884-85) and View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882), are both from relatively early in Van Gogh’s career.

Italian financial police seized “assets worth tens of millions of euros from a Camorra group involved in international cocaine trafficking”, according to a statement, including the paintings, which were “priceless”.

“They’re safe,” Van Gogh Museum director Axel Rüger said. “I no longer dared to hope that I could ever say that, after so many years.”

Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi had informed his Dutch counterpart Mark Rutte about the police operation, a source in Renzi’s office said.

In the 2002 heist, thieves used a ladder to climb onto the museum’s roof and break into the building, escaping by sliding down a rope.

Two men were later caught and convicted of the theft, thanks in part to DNA evidence linking them to the scene.

They were sentenced to about four years, but the paintings were not recovered.

Further investigation would determine both paintings’ condition and restoration needs, the museum said. —