SHORT TAKES : 3 Van Gogh Paintings Stolen

DEN BOSCH, Netherlands —  Three early oil paintings by 19th-Century Dutch master Vincent van Gogh were stolen early today from a small museum whose alarm system failed to alert authorities, a museum official said.

It was the third theft in two years of Van Gogh works.

The paintings taken early today from the Noordbrabants Museum were identified by the museum as “The Sitting Farmer’s Wife,” “The Digging Farmer’s Wife” and “Wheels of the Water Mill in Gennep.”

Guy Jennings, an Impressionism expert at Christie’s auction house in London, said by telephone that such minor works by Van Gogh are worth about $1 million each but would be virtually impossible to sell on the open market.

Peter Veenland, a member of the museum’s board of directors, valued the three works--the only three Van Goghs in the museum--at from $2.7 million to $5.4 million.

The paintings were stolen from the museum 55 miles south of Amsterdam after thieves broke a window and entered.

Police were called by neighbors who heard the sound of breaking glass.

Veenland said neither the seismic nor the infrared sensors had functioned during the theft.

All the paintings are insured, Veenland said. He declined to specify for how much.

The paintings date from about 1884, known as the artist’s Brabant period, when he worked among the farmers and rural artisans of the Brabant, which encompasses a large part of the southern Netherlands.