3 Stolen Masterpieces Recovered From Car at Amsterdam Hotel
AMSTERDAM, Netherlands — Police today recovered three 19th-Century masterpieces, including paintings by Vincent van Gogh and Paul Cezanne, less than two weeks after they were stolen from the city’s Municipal Museum in the biggest art theft in Dutch history.
The impressionistic paintings, valued at up to $52 million, were found undamaged in a parked car outside a hotel in the city’s west side during a pre-dawn raid.
Police, using an undercover agent posing as a buyer, arrested one seller and two prospective buyers inside the hotel.
The paintings are Van Gogh’s 1888 “Carnations,” the 1894 still-life “Bottle With Apples” by Cezanne and an 1874 work by Dutch impressionist Johan Jongkind, “The House of Maitre Billaud in Nevers.”
Although the 36-year-old suspected seller has a police burglary record, it was not immediately clear whether the man was involved in the theft.
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