Six Paintings Stolen from Dutch Museum

Published: May 15, 2009

Tamara de Lempicka Rembrandt Harmensz. van Rijn Salvador Dali Pieter de Neyn Willem Roelofs Salomon Rombouts Season Opens Softly at Christie’s Hirst Among the Masters

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AMSTERDAM—Thieves stole six 17th- and 19th-century landscape paintings from a small Dutch museum early this week, the Associated Press reports. It was the second major art heist in 10 days in the Netherlands.

Among the works were three by Jan van Goyen, a prolific contemporary of Rembrandt. The others were a 17th-century painting by Pieter de Neyn and 19th-century pieces by Willem Roelofs and Adrianus van Everdingen.

Police arrived at the IJsselstein City Museum within minutes after the break-in at 3 a.m. Monday set off an alarm. But the burglars had already fled, leaving behind two paintings, works by Salomon van Ruysdael and Salomon Rombouts, that they dropped in their haste. Both were damaged.

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The stolen paintings, on loan from the Dutch government, were mostly river scenes set in the flat countryside typical of northern Holland. The theft occurred 10 days after an armed robbery from the Scheringa Museum for Realism in Spanbroek of paintings by Salvador Dali and Tamara de Lempicka. A security expert said the two thefts were carried out differently, indicating no reason to connect them.

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