Two valuable paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, robbed 14 years in the Netherlands and a value of near $ 100 million were recovered on Friday near Naples, south of Italy, in a hiding place of a known drug trafficker during an important operation drug of the Italian police.
The works recovered, “Congregation leaving the reformed church in Nuenen”, dated between 1884 and 1885, and “View of the sea from Scheveningen”, dating back to 1882, were found to be in good condition, without their frames, and they were recognized as authentic by the experts at the Van Gogh Museum.
Since January, the Italian police followed the track to the head of one of the bands of the mafia, neapolitan, Raffaele Imperiale, accused of being part of the Camorra, who fled to Dubai, where he is the owner of a construction company.
“With this finding confirms that the criminal organizations are interested both in investing in works of art as well as financed by them,” commented the minister of Culture Italian, Dario Franceschini.
For its part, the Van Gogh Museum said its satisfaction after noting that the two paintings, belonging to the first phase of the artist, they are authentic.
“you Are original!”, read the press release from the museum that houses hundreds of paintings, drawings and sketches made by one of the teachers of the history of painting , who committed suicide in 1890.
“they Seem to be in good condition. Despite the fact that some damages on the edges of the canvas, maybe because of the transport inappropriate”, said the museum.
“Many thanks to the financial police for having recovered works of Van Gogh. I Am proud of our security forces”,, he wrote on twitter the Italian leader, Matteo Renzi.
In a press conference, leaders of the Italian police confirmed that the band of Imperiale had many international ramifications, and that he worked “as a true multinational, by diversifying its activities thanks to the money from the traffic cocaine”.
in Addition to paintings, the police recovered property worth more than 20 million euros, including a small plane.
“It’s an exciting day. We are happy with the finding”, reiterated the director of the Van Gogh museum, Axel Rüger, who attended the press conference in Naples.
“For us it is a dream to having recovered and being able to take home”, said.
During the robbery, the robbers climbed up to the roof of the museum, entered through a window and fled with a rope with the two tables of the great master of the postimpresionisno.
“The historical value of these two paintings to our collection is enormous,” emphasized the director of the museum.
“View of the sea from Scheveningen is a canvas of small dimensions (34,5 cm by 51 cm) that depicts a scene of the coastline near The Hague, with a sea of wild and dark skies. Some of the grains of sand thrown into the wind while Van Gogh painted the work are still preserved, embedded in the canvas.
“it Is one of the two paintings with a view of the sea that he painted during the years he lived in the Netherlands and constitute an important early example of his style of painting”, explained the museum.
“Congregation leaving the reformed church in Nuenen”, where he appeared his father a pastor, it is a canvas small Van Gogh painted for the mother who has just broken a leg.
“In 1885, after the death of his father, Van Gogh took the canvas and added several parishioners at the entrance, among them several women with the robe of mourning”, explained the press release.
The Van Gogh Museum, opened in 1973, te hundreds of paintings, drawings and sketches of the artist, from his first Dutch period up until his tragic death in Auvers-sur-Oise (France) in 1890.
Born in 1853 in Zundert (center) in a family of pastors and merchants of art, Vincent Van Gogh painted over 800 works of art. Managed to sell only one painting in life, but his works today are of inestimable value.
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