A painting by the celebrated Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh, which was stolen in 2020 from the Singer Laren Museum in Amsterdam, was returned last week in an Ikea bag. Art detective Arthur Brand – dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the art world” – played an instrumental role in its return.

Van Gogh’s ‘The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring’ (1884) had been lent to the Singer Laren Museum at the time of his theft; it was owned by the Groninger Museum in Groningen. It was stolen just as the Covid-19 pandemic sent museums internationally into lockdown, with artnet news reporting that “it was only a matter of time” before criminals would take advantage of the unprecedented situation. Security footage reveals that a man wearing a ski mask smashed through entrance of the museum to take the painting. Fortunately, a breakthrough came in the case in 2021, when Dutch police arrested a man identified as ‘Nils M.’ on suspicion of the theft. It later transpired that his DNA had been found at the scene, as well as at a museum in Leerdam near Utrecht where a painting by seventeenth-century Dutch Golden Age artist Frans Hals was stolen later in 2020. Nils M. was sentenced to eight years in prison for the crimes. But by the time the Dutch police caught up with the criminal, the Hals and Van Gogh paintings were long gone.

There was, however, reason to be hopeful about the return of the Van Gogh. In the last few decades, a total of 28 Van Gogh paintings have been stolen in the Netherlands, and surprisingly they have all been returned safely. As it turned out, renowned art detective Arthur Brand was on the case. Brand has been involved in an almost unbelievable number of art recoveries – 200 in total – and he suggests that the total value of the works he has recovered is in excess of $300 million. In 2015, he assisted in the recovery of two horse statutes by artist Josef Thorak which many had presumed were destroyed after they were stolen from their public location in Berlin in 1989 at the time of the fall of the Berlin Wall. Brand recounted how as early as June 2020, he was sent “proof of life” photos of the Van Gogh painting, indicating that the work still existed. Later he was approached by a man offering to return it in exchange for confidentiality. Brand explainedthat “we knew that the painting would go from hand to another hand in the criminal world, but that nobody really wanted to touch it” as “you could only get in trouble”.

Brand arranged with the Dutch police for an intermediary to drop the painting off at his apartment, while the director of the Groninger Museum, Andreas Blühm, waited anxiously around the corner in a café. Blühm recalled how Brand phoned him to tell him the work had been dropped off and that he could come over to authenticate it. He explained that he was shaking with emotion and that he “was super excited.”

In a statement, the Groninger Museum says the oil on paper on panel painting “has suffered” due to poor storage conditions over the past few years but “is—at first glance—still in good condition.”  The only hurdle the Groninger Museum now face is the fact that the painting is actually owned by their insurance company. Following the theft, the insurance company paid out for the loss, giving the museum a total of €2.5 million. The museum will now be able to buy back the painting from the company for that sum.

For his part, it has been a difficult few years for Andreas Blühm, as dealing with an art theft is the last thing any museum director would want. According to BBC News, he has said he will not be lending the painting again, as he has been too traumatised by the theft. Richard Bronswijk from the Dutch Police’s Art Crime Unit told ABC News that with the perpetrator in prison and the painting returned they “are very happy with that result.”