2025-02-13
In 2002, two paintings were seized from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam by the mafia. On 30 September 2016 the Italian authorities managed to recover the pictures in Castellammare di Stabia, a seaside village 25 kilometres away from Naples. The pictures were said to be held by a leader of the Neapolitan mafia, Raffaele Imperiale.
The paintings − “View of the Sea at Scheveningen” (1882) and “Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen” (1885) − will be on display at the Naples museum from the 7th to the 26th of February. They will then travel back to Amsterdam and will be restored to their previous place in March.
Both paintings survived the theft quite well, even though the thieves removed their protective frames. As far as the damage is concerned, the picture of the church is a little bit frayed on the edges, whereas the seascape suffered more harm − one corner of the paper was torn away.