The secret life of a stolen Van Gogh
6/28/202631 min
What happens to famous works of art when they are stolen from museums and private art collections? In the Netherlands, museums and collectors reach out to Arthur Brand, a self-styled art detective who works to track down art that has gone missing and fallen into the criminal underworld.
This week on The Sunday Story, when a famous Van Gogh painting is stolen from a museum, Brand teams up with an unlikely partner – art thief Octave Durham. Together, the pair work to rescue a masterpiece from the underground market and return it to its museum home.
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First 90 secondsAyesha Rascoe· Host0:00
I'm Ayesha Rascoe, and this is The Sunday Story from Up First. [gentle music] Late one morning in September 2023, the famous Dutch art detective Arthur Brand was pacing around his Amsterdam apartment, waiting for a special delivery.
Arthur Brand· Guest0:16
And then at 12:00, the doorbell rang.
Ayesha Rascoe· Host0:19
Brand looked out the window, and on the stoop he saw a man who he'd been expecting, holding an iconic big blue bag.
Arthur Brand· Guest0:28
So I opened the door, and he was standing there with an Ikea bag.
Ayesha Rascoe· Host0:32
Now, what Brand was expecting inside that Ikea bag was a painting. Not just any painting, but a Vincent Van Gogh that had been stolen from a Dutch museum. But when he peeked into the bag...
Arthur Brand· Guest0:48
The only thing I saw was a pillow full of blood.
Ayesha Rascoe· Host0:51
A pillow full of blood. Today on the show, a story about an art detective, the criminal underworld, and what it took to solve one of the greatest art heists in recent history. We'll be right back.
Speaker 31:05
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