Vincent van Gogh painting is stolen from Dutch museum closed due to coronavirus
- The museum near Amsterdam said van Gogh’s ‘Spring Garden’ had been stolen
- Burglars forced their way in through a glass door shortly after 3am this morning
- Museum director said he was ‘shocked and incredibly p****d off’ by the theft
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A Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen today in a raid at a Dutch museum which is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The Singer Laren museum near Amsterdam said ‘Spring Garden’ by the Dutch master was stolen in the early hours of this morning.
The burglars forced their way through the glass front door shortly after 3am and left with the single painting, Dutch media said.
The museum was shut down on March 12 along with the Van Gogh museum and Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.
Spring Garden, a painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh, was stolen today from a Dutch museum which is closed because of the coronavirus pandemic
Museum director Jan Rudolph de Lorm told Dutch media he was ‘shocked and incredibly p****d off’ by the theft.
‘This is extremely difficult, especially in these times,’ he said.
The van Gogh painting had been on loan from the Groninger Museum in the city of Groningen, according to public broadcaster NOS.
The 1884 painting shows the spring garden of the rectory at Nuenen, a town where the painter was living at the time.
The value of the artwork was not immediately clear.
Police had been investigating the break-in since this morning, before the identity of the stolen artwork was revealed this afternoon.
Before the closure, the museum was hosting an exhibition titled ‘Mirror of the Soul’ with works by artists ranging from Toorop to Mondrian.
The museum’s collection has a focus on genres such as neo-impressionism, pointillism, expressionism and cubism.
The Singer Laren museum near Amsterdam (pictured today) said a Vincent van Gogh painting had been stolen in an overnight raid
People look at the glass door which burglars forced their way through in the early hours of this morning, stealing the van Gogh artwork Spring Garden