The cocaine boss allegedly wants to use the painting as collateral to help him escape a huge jail sentence
A painting by Vincent van Gogh, owned by the Groninger Museum, is likely to be in the possession of a drug kingpin. He wants to use the painting as “change” in order to receive a reduced sentence from the court, in exchange for the painting being returned, reports RTV Noord.
Peter Roy K. (38) from Amersfoort is now in a Dutch jail. He allegedly bought the stolen Van Gogh in March last year. The work, from 1884, likely cost the criminal about 400,000 euros and was likely bought from the thief.
At the end of March last year, on Van Gogh’s birthday, the painting ‘Spring Garden’ of the pastoral garden in Nuenen, was stolen from the Singer Museum in Laren. A thief smashed into a glass door with a sledgehammer and took off on a scooter with the work under his arm. The Singer Museum had the canvas on loan from the Groninger Museum.
Andreas Blühm, director of the Groninger Museum, still fervently hopes that he will soon be able to welcome the canvas back to his museum.
The Groninger Museum has a major Van Gogh exhibition planned in three years. Blühm hopes that the canvas will hang back in its familiar place. ‘I can’t do more than hope for a happy ending’, he says.
Image: ‘Spring Garden’, the parsonage garden at Nuenen by Vincent van Gogh (1884)
