Five 17th Century Paintings Stolen

AP ^ | March 25, 2002 | AP Wire

[Dawgsquat]

HAARLEM, Netherlands (AP) — Thieves stole five 17th century paintings from the renowned Frans Hals museum in the western Dutch city of Haarlem, in a haul worth $2.6 million, police said Monday.

The paintings taken Sunday night were by Jan Steen, Cornelis Bega, Adriaan van Ostade and Cornelis Dusart, Dutch television reported. The artists belonged to a movement that depicted daily life in the Netherlands of the 1600s and often conveyed a moral.

The widely documented works were the showpieces of a new exhibition about life in and around Haarlem.

``This is an extraordinarily great loss to the museum,'' said Michel Kersten, the museum director.

Kersten said the burglary was the work of professionals.

``It was a very focused burglary. They knew what they wanted,'' said Kersten, although he said he didn't know what would happen to the pieces. ``These paintings are known and it is very difficult to sell them.''

Police spokesman Hans Vos said the thieves tried to steal a sixth painting but dropped it on the way out. Police arrived at the scene five minutes after the alarm went off.

The thieves were still at large and police declined to give information about the investigation, which is led by a team of eight detectives.

[Dawgsquat]

Sounds like someone put in an order.

[Dawgsquat]

Art PING!

[buffyt]

How awful! I have a degree in Art (OSU 1973) and I went to that museum in Haarlem! It indeed sounds like someone put in an order. These paintings can't be sold - they would be immediately recognized! I remember THE SCREAM by Munch was stolen and recovered not too many years ago. That was a major scandal at that time too.

[Dawgsquat]

Awful indeed. Tis the ultimate act of greed.

[Orual]

Very sad story, but it's not an isolated one.

[Dawgsquat]

The commercial register is the world's biggest computerised image database of stolen and missing art, antiquities and valuables.

Do you suppose that register is on the web? I'll do a search. Would be interesting to look at.

[Orual]

If you go to THIS SITE you can get a list of the databases for numerous countries and if you scroll through, you can access private stolen art and a list of stolen art by country and continent.

[Dawgsquat]

COOL! Check it out!

[Dawgsquat]

I found it.

[Dawgsquat]

Rats! You have to be a member to search their database.

[Dawgsquat]

Your link is better. Thanks!

[Orual]

I couldn't get to your link - it was really slow.

[Hillarys Gate Cult]

Just glanced through, but why aren't artworks stolen from Kuwait listed? I thought there were many items stolen during the Iraq invasion and Iraquis tried to sell many of them on the world markets.

I used to hear that some high dollar art can sometimes be "stolen to order", that is private collectors ask for certain pieces, only for their own viewing. I wonder what happens when these collectors die. I would think that many "lost" paintings would resurface but that doesn't happen much.

[Orual]

I'm not crying over this one.

[Dawgsquat]

It's the Art Loss Register. You have to be a member to use it. Time for me to hit the hay. I'll follow your links tomorrow. Thanks again.

[Dawgsquat]

LOL!!! G'nite.

[Orual]

Just glanced through, but why aren't artworks stolen from Kuwait listed?

It may be simply that they don't have an on-line database. Dunno.

[Orual]

Night. It'll be fun looking up some of the worst ones!

[dighton]

I didn't do it. Nobody saw me. You can't prove anything.

[Orual]

I didn't do it. Nobody saw me. You can't prove anything.

Stolen from a Marin County museum. Could it be mounted on the walls of a house in County Tulare?