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 director of the Groninger Museum said the burglary was ‘the theft of a work that belongs to all of us’.
The van Gogh painting had been on loan from the Groninger Museum in the city of Groningen, according to public broadcaster NOS.
The Singer Laren museum said security had been ‘entirely according to protocol’.
The 1884 painting shows the spring garden of the rectory at Nuenen, where van Gogh was living at the time.
According to the Groninger Museum, van Gogh was living with his parents at the rectory after his father was appointed pastor of the small parish.
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.
Museum staff held a press conference which was live-streamed via YouTube because of the virus outbreak.
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
Before the closure, the museum was hosting an exhibition titled ‘Mirror of the Soul’ with works by artists ranging from Toorop to Mondrian.
Several museums announced their closure after the Dutch government banned gatherings of more than 100 people on March 12.
The Anne Frank House, another major tourist attraction in Amsterdam, has also been closed down.
The city’s red-light district has also been shut, but the famous ‘coffee shops’ that sell weed are still open for takeaways after an initial outbreak of panic-buying.
The number of virus cases in the Netherlands rose to 11,750 today, after 884 new cases brought the total up from 10,866.
The death toll increased by 93, bringing the tally from 771 to 864.