Althouse: “The paintings have been found! That I would be able to ever pronounce these words is something I had no longer dared to hope for."

October 4, 2016

“The paintings have been found! That I would be able to ever pronounce these words is something I had no longer dared to hope for."

Said the Director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

The 2 paintings — “Seascape at Scheveningen” and “Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen” were stolen from the museum in 2002 and found through an investigation of the Amato Pagano clan of the Camorra Mafia family.

17 comments:

David Begley said...: Stealing famous paintings is the ultimate exercise in vanity. You can't really sell them so you have to just admire them at home and in secret. See, The Thomas Crown Affair.; 10/4/16, 7:33 AM
Curious George said...: Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay!; 10/4/16, 7:40 AM
Curious George said...: Something else the Muzzies can destroy in a few years.; 10/4/16, 7:40 AM
abby said...: I love Van Gogh's paintings. You can almost feel the madness in them.; 10/4/16, 7:51 AM
Jupiter said...: "The 2 paintings were stolen from the museum in 2002 and found through an investigation of the Amato Pagano clan of the Camorra Mafia family."

That's hate speech. The Camorras didn't "steal" the paintings. In their centuries-old religion, called Camorra (meaning "Gimme That" in Italian), everything belongs to them. So they can't steal it, it is already theirs. Your disrespect for the sacred rites of this ancient Religion of Peace, and its thousands of devoted members worldwide, shows that you are a xenophobic bigot. Probably a racist, too. President Obama and his friends from the UN will be settling some Camorras next door to you, soon. Your taxes will be going up to support them, and to pay some supposed "Christian Charity" that is actually a front for some DC scam artists to fly their extended family over here to rob, rape and kill you and your family. Try not to make a total ass of yourself by objecting. I don't blame them for wanting to kill you, you are so hateful.; 10/4/16, 7:52 AM
Ignorance is Bliss said...: David Begley said...

Stealing famous paintings is the ultimate exercise in vanity. You can't really sell them so you have to just admire them at home and in secret.

Do you have reason to believe that the people who did the stealing were members of the Amato Pagano clan? Isn't it entirely possible that the people who stole the paintings did, in fact, really sell them?; 10/4/16, 7:52 AM
CStanley said...: It's great that they recovered the paintings, but I can't help but find the name Amato Pagano delightful to pronounce.; 10/4/16, 7:52 AM
Bob Boyd said...: At first I thought it was going to say the stolen paintings were discovered hanging in Kim Kardashian's jewelry box.; 10/4/16, 8:00 AM
Bob Ellison said...: Quite a few rich (very, very rich) Europeans do have old-master works in their houses. They're rich enough that the market prices of the works are of no concern to the owners. It should not surprise us that in many European countries, even the nice ones, there are likely a few people that would pay a pretty penny for stolen works, especially at a fraction of the honest market value.; 10/4/16, 8:11 AM
David Begley said...: Bliss

Possible, but that's what the Mob does: steal. Might have even be a custom ordered theft.

There is a huge discount from FMV to sale price on paintings. Thiefs would have been lucky to clear $1m.; 10/4/16, 8:39 AM
Eric the Fruit Bat said...: This morning I was listening to the Jonathan Franzen essay where he talks about the Camorra flooding low areas to attract migratory songbirds so illegal hunters can blast them by the thousands.; 10/4/16, 8:43 AM
Etienne said...: Is it just me, or do other people find Van Gogh paintings as worthless crap?

Ugly to view?

It's like his favorite color is anything with dark dirt.

Well, except maybe for his orange beard, which he always over highlighted.

It's like he searched for the ugliest peasant to be his model, and then tried to get his brother to sell the piece of shit.

Maybe I'm too critical, but even my graffiti of enamel is way-better...; 10/4/16, 8:52 AM
Hagar said...: I have been told that the Dutch pronunciation of Scheveningen is such that it cannot be imitated by non-native speakers and during WWII the Dutch would use that to catch spies.; 10/4/16, 9:05 AM
Bob Boyd said...: My new favorite piece of public art went by me at RR crossing the other day. It was painted in huge, careful, white block letters running the entire length of a brand new rail car.
It said, "DON'T FORGET THE CLITORIS FELLAS!"

The piece left me feeling just a little burdened though. Now I have two things I have to remember, The Alamo and the clitoris. Oh well.; 10/4/16, 9:25 AM
Etienne said...: We used to cross the border near the city of Heerlen. It was a 2-lane road (Heerlener-Straße). Heerlen being a much nicer village for English speakers.

One thing the Krauts were a pain in the ass with, was their constant need to hear German. When I spoke English to a German I was already on their bad side, especially in northern Germany where the English burned all their villages and killed all their animals in 1945.

Anyway, at the Dutch border there was a border guard. He was in a fairly large building with an all glass front. He would sit at his desk, and make you wait. Then whenever he felt like it, he would wave his hand and we would proceed into Holland.

We finally decided to fuck with him one day, when we all agreed not to look in the window. We wanted to see how long he lasted before he came outside to talk to us. Well after a few minutes one of the guys in the van looked into the window. The guy was furiously waving his hands for us to move, because now there was 10 cars lined-up behind us blowing their horns.

God we were laughing hard. Nope, he never came out. Finally I just floored it and off we went. The next week, we fell back in to his system, and decided not to fuck with him anymore.

I think he was allergic to the cold, and liked his space heater. Damned foreigners...; 10/4/16, 9:30 AM
Michael K said...: "Might have even be a custom ordered theft."

I wouldn't rule that out.

"during WWII the Dutch would use that to catch spies."

There is still a question if the Dutch Underground was run by German counterintelligence for most of the war. The SOE kept tapes of all the wireless operators they had in Europe. Each tended to make the same mistakes in transmission and that was a way of checking to see if they had been captured or turned. If the transmission became error-free and the usual errors disappeared, it was assumed to be evidence the Germans had caught them and were now doing the transmission. The Dutch underground showed a shift to error-free transmissions and that was suspicious. It was never proven.; 10/4/16, 9:41 AM
Rusty said...: coupe said...
Is it just me, or do other people find Van Gogh paintings as worthless crap?

It's you.; 10/4/16, 3:26 PM