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Rome—Two stolen artworks by Dutch post-Impressionist painter Vincent van Gogh have been recovered from a criminal network linked to the mafia near Naples, Italian authorities said last Friday.
The two works, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, had been stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2002.
Van Gogh, who was born in 1853 and died in France in 1890, is regarded as one of the most influential artists in history. His works—including The Starry Night and Irises— are seen as important contributors to the foundations of modern art.
Italy’s financial police found the paintings during an anti-drug-trafficking operation in the coastal town of Castellammare di Stabia, which targeted a group affiliated with the Naples-based Camorra mob, police said during a press conference.
Museum curators confirmed the authenticity of the artworks, which would be worth about 100 million euros ($111.6 million), Ansa news agency reported.
Despite a 14-year disappearance, the two works appeared to be “in fairly good condition,” the Amsterdam museum wrote in a statement published on its website.
“Both lack their frames and show signs of some damage. It is not yet clear when they will return to Amsterdam,” it added.
Axel Ruger, the director of the museum, attended the press conference held in Naples last Friday, thanking the Italian investigative authorities, as well as the Italian and Dutch police.
“I am very excited. The paintings have been found. That I would ever be able to pronounce these words is something I had no longer dared to hope for,” Ruger said.
Italian authorities were also happy with the results, and praised investigators and police in Naples for their work. “This is an extraordinary recovery, which confirms the strength of Italy’s action against antiquities trafficking,” Culture Minister Dario Franceschini said.
“The result of this operation also confirms the high interest criminal organizations put in artworks, which are being used both as way of investment and as source of financing,” he added.
The operation was launched by prosecutors of the regional Anti-Mafia District Directorate in Naples against 41-year-old fugitive Camorra boss Raffaele Imperiale, and resulted in the seizure of various other assets worth some 20 million euros, authorities explained.
One of Imperiale’s former accomplices, who had become repentant, helped the police locate and retrieve the two paintings, local media reported.
The artworks are both small and were shown at the press conference.
Seascape at Scheveningen is a landscape painting done in 1882, when van Gogh was living in The Hague. The canvas is slightly damaged, according to the museum.
Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Neunen, meanwhile, was painted from 1884 to 1885 for van Gogh’s mother, and “looks undamaged at first sight, apart from a few minor damages at the edges of the canvas,” the museum said. PNA/Xinhua