After an explosion at the museum in Assen, several archaeological top pieces of Romanian gold were captured. The robbery attracts a lot of attention both nationally and internationally. The investigation into the perpetrators and the disappeared art treasures is still in full swing.
‘Unjust’
Five years ago it went exactly in Laren. A thief invaded the Singer Laren and stolen Spring garden, The Pastorie Garden in Nuenen in the spring of Vincent van Gogh. That Van Os and De Lormen intensely sympathize with their colleagues in Drenthe and Romania is therefore not surprising.
“I immediately called Harry Tupan from the Drents Museum. He was completely through it, had a guilt. Such a robbery is an incredible trauma. As a team you have to process that together, “says De Lorm.
Yet the thoughts of the directors also wander to that conscious night, more than five years ago. “It felt incredibly unjust. We were furious, “Van Os looks back. “We were already closed because of Corona and then you will also be robbed.”
Singer Laren’s message is clear: “We are completely behind you. The entire museum world supports each other, “says De Lorm. “You know it can happen everywhere. If one of us is affected, we stand together as a sector. “
‘Extra painful’
There is another striking agreement between the Roof in Drenthe and the one in Laren five years earlier: the stolen pieces were on loan. The archaeological top pieces in Assen came from the National Historical Museum of Romania; The stolen Van Gogh was then owned by the Groninger Museum. “That makes it extra painful.”
“Yet you have to continue,” says Van Os. The museum doors opened again, and the security was tightened. “But there is always something gnawing. That something went wrong under your leadership – you feel guilty about that. “
Keep hope
In the following years, Singer Laren continued to hope for the return of the work of the Dutch master, as the Drents Museum will do now. “I put hope from figures that show that Van Gogh works often return.”
And that hope turned out to be right. After 3.5 years Art detective Arthur Brand to detect the painting, much to the delight of Singer Laren, the Groninger Museum and the rest of the Dutch art world.