Two Van Gogh paintings stolen in 2002 were recovered in Italy in 2016: View of the Sea at Scheveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen. Their subjects preserve different parts of his early world, a turbulent coast and the church where his father was pastor.
The fourteen-year absence puts this above the Saliera. Stockholm edges it for the recovery of a Rembrandt self-portrait and the international response. Here, notice how a theft removes evidence of an artist’s development, not simply a recognisable signature.
Source: Van Gogh Museum · 2016.
Image: Vincent van Gogh · Public domain. Resized and recompressed; original rights retained.
