The Singer Laren museum near Amsterdam, the Netherlands, was closed. Like most venues and walk-in businesses, the museum shut its doors to limit transmission of the novel coronavirus. But the closure didn’t stop thieves. Instead, it presented an opportunity. Someone stole a painting by Dutch master Vincent van Gogh in an overnight smash-and-grab raid on the Singer Laren.
The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring 1884 was taken in the early hours of the anniversary of the painter’s birthday on March 30.
Van Gogh’s most famous paintings use vibrant colors, thickly applied in swirling and expressive strokes and dabs in the Post-Impressionist style. But not this work. Van Gogh created the bleak image at an earlier time in his life, before developing his own unique style. At the time, he was living with his parents. His father was a Dutch Reformed Church pastor, and the parsonage referred to in the painting’s title was home.
Vincent’s father converted the parsonage laundry room into a studio for his artistic son. He used the small, humble indoor space for almost two years, producing about 200 paintings and drawings in that time. Just prior to creating The Parsonage Garden in Spring, van Gogh had finished a series of winter paintings. All used a somber palette of browns and grays. This image introduced touches of green and red, suggesting that winter was finally turning to spring.
Museum General Director Evert van Os said the institution that houses the collection of American couple William and Anna Singer is “angry, shocked, sad” at the theft. The 10-by-22-inch oil-on-paper work was on loan from the Groninger Museum in the Dutch city of Groningen. Its value wasn’t immediately known. Van Gogh’s paintings, which rarely come up for sale, fetch millions at auction. But it would be almost impossible for a thief to sell a known work like this one.
Police were investigating the theft amid speculation by art lovers about the thief’s motivation for taking this particular work on the artist’s birthday. A team of forensics and art theft experts studied video footage and questioned neighbors.
Singer Laren museum director Jan Rudolph says the loss is more than just material. It robs a public “in these difficult times” of a shared experience that the work communicated. As much of the world waited in some form of quarantine or isolation, the overcast view of the garden and its lone figure—with spring promised but not quite in reach yet—spoke of hope, perseverance, and patience to the lonely.
That painting is interesting.
That painting is interesting. It definitely differs from his other works in some ways -I'm not sure I would be able to tell that he was the artist if I had seen the painting without reading the article- But in other ways it is similar to his other paintings.
Huge cliff hanger!!
I want to know if they ever found the thief! What about the painting???
Art!
My sister is an art major, and she is still in collage but if she ever gets famouse it will be after she is gone right? Because that is how a lot of artists got famouse that way. But she also might just live her life and never be famouse(but she will be to me).. I hope none of her paintings get stolen ever, I LOVE them!
That was Caro
That was Caro
@ Caro
If your sister does get famous, it's possible that it could be during her lifetime. Leonardo Da Vinci and Michaelangelo were that way, and probably some other artists as well. And that's great that your sister is doing art, and that you love her paintings! You sound like a good sibling :-)
Social distancing
Look at the people in the third people, they are not practicing social distancing!!
Mysterious
I hope they find the culprit. It is really interesting that the robber did it on Van Gogh's birthday. We just recently studied Van Gogh in school, and we looked at a lot of his paintings.
@Caro: My sister paints too! She is not in college yet, but I love all of her paintings! That would be cool if your sister was famous!! What kind of pictures does she paint?
@Matthew N: Yeah, but what if they were a married couple? Then they wouldn't have to social distance. And I think it should personally be called physical distancing, not social distancing, because we still want to be social with other people, but keep our distance.
Gasp
I cannot believe this happened I hope they find the culprit.Paintings are so valuable
This is Mylee
Wow Lilly S. this is definitely a cliff hanger I wonder when they will find the thief. I love art but am bad at it I use to take art lessons a long time ago,but it was extremely expensive.
That's sad
It's interesting the robbers took it on the painter's birthday. It might mean they were thieves who knew a bit about art.
@cortneyk
I guess it just had to gogh.
Cortney K and David P
Do y'all know each other? It seems like it, but maybe that is just me. NOT BEING NOSY im just curious.
@David P
Hahaha!
@David P
Nice joke! My sister and i love jokes!
@Riley D
No, we have never met. Do we seem to comment on each others comments a lot?
@Cortney K
yeah, it sort of seemed like it. That is ok though! I just saw he did the joke to you, so I was wondering! Thanks!
It would be funny though if
It would be funny though if we knew someone personally on here! I have a friend who had an account, but never really uses it.
@Riley D
That would be fun! Maybe I could convince some of my friends to use WORLD Teen. ;)
@Cortney K
Yeah! That would be cool! Try to! I have been trying to get my friend to use her account again, but she is really busy.
7th comment in the world!!!!!!!
Why don't you pay her to?
@David P
Ha ha ha!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! You are sooooo funny!!!!!! Maybe I should try........... ;) :) XD :D lol!!
I have a friend who gets the
I have a friend who gets the WorldTeen magazine, but I don't know if she's allowed to use the website or not.
Huh?
What does "XD" mean?
@Kara N
XD is a laughing face sideways.
XD
That's what I thought! Thanks!
@David P
So yesterday I dared her to! I'll see if she does! She has been on before, but not since I have had an account.
@ Cortney K.
oh just wondering if this looks like a sideways smily face :D ( ok guess not, but i tried :) ) ( sorry i guess i was not in this conversation! hehehehehehehehe )
@Belwyn R
Haha! It does kind of look like a smiley face!
All this stuff going on a
All this stuff going on a someone steals a painting?!?! It probably can't even be sold!!! I'm also kind of curious to see if the robbery is related to the riots going on....
@Porter E
I don't think this is related to the riots. The painting was stolen before George Floyd was killed.
a lot of thoughts here
There is a huge cliff hanger because we want to know, did the thief get caught? Also, vincent van Gogh is a very respected artist and I have a little bit of respect for people who could pull that off. Maybe they should up security. God willing, we will get the painting and catch the thief!
I don't even think the
I don't even think the culprit will be able to sell the painting u'd think people would notice a Van Gough painting at an pawn shop or something like that the culprit can't just try to auction it of the whole world would notice
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