Van Gogh Museum Theft Return by Gardner Museum Art Theft Anniversary

Summary: The Van Gogh Museum theft return to Amsterdam, The Netherlands, occurs around the 27th Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft anniversary.

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team

The date March 18, 2017, acknowledges the 27th anniversary of the unsolved Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum art theft and public viewings of the Van Gogh Museum theft return three days later.

The museum's theme "Ze zijn weer thuis!" ("They are home again!") brings closure to a 14-year loss in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, and hope to Boston, Massachusetts. The Dutch police and their Italian counterparts claimed respective contributions to catching the two perpetrators in 2003 and to coordinating the two masterpieces' recovery in 2016. Recovery of the two oils of a Nuenen church and of a stormy Scheveningen derived from the conviction of two perpetrators and the cooperation of one.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation entered both museum thefts on the FBI list of top 10 art crimes without effectuating arrests, convictions or sentences in Boston.

The two art thefts, in Boston's Fenway neighborhood March 18, 1990, and in Amsterdam's Museumplein (Museum Square) Dec. 7, 2002, furnished two different means and outcomes.

Motion detection systems and security guard reports gave an 81-minute interval from walk-in as two policemen to walk-out as two perpetrators of a Boston museum theft. Burglar alarms, perpetrator confessions and security cameras had an interval of 3 minutes and 40 seconds from a roof break-in to a window break-out in Amsterdam. The FBI-released composite imparted the results of face-to-face interactions of two dark-haired, light-skinned, mustached male perpetrators in their late 20s or 30s with two Boston guards.

Eyewitnesses possibly joined on-site evidence in jacketing, and judging guilty, perpetrators long before the Van Gogh Museum theft return by the Gardner Museum art theft anniversary.

Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb via Twitter Sept. 30, 2016

Commandeered surveillance footage, disabled burglar alarms and non-existent physical evidence keep investigators of the Gardner Museum art theft from knowing for sure the perpetrators' undisguised looks.

A discarded escape rope, an abandoned entry ladder, deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) evidence and a dropped hat led Dutch police to two separate arrests in December 2003. Newspaper articles from 2002 and a perpetrator's confession for a 2017-released documentary respectively mentioned possible input from security cameras and a responding policeman making eye contact.

Different means netted different outcomes for two sets of two perpetrators near in age and possibly also in motives nurtured by the Mafia's need for art. The Van Gogh Museum theft return by the 27th Gardner Museum art theft anniversary occurred because of continental investigations into art-loving members of the Italian Mafia.

The first-floor Blue Room and the second-floor Dutch Room and Short Gallery preserve evidence of the theft in empty frames and places for 13 missing artworks.

Conscious reminder of 13 wayward artworks qualifies as another outcome different from the Van Gogh Museum's relocation of main exhibition hall paintings into the opened-up spaces. The Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen reclaim their place among their creator's preserved drawings, letters and paintings. Their recovery from the Castellammare di Stabia home of Mafia member Raffaele Imperiale's parents near Naples Sept. 25, 2016, suggests hope for the Gardner Museum 13.

The Federal Bureau of Investigation tends toward similarly Mafia-involved, tucked-away locations for the Gardner Museum 13 on the 27th anniversary of the Gardner Museum art theft.

Two Vincent van Gogh paintings stolen in 2002 from Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum were retrieved over 1,500 kilometers (932 miles) to the south in Castellammare di Stabia, a seaside resort in southwestern Italy; aerial view of Castellammare di Stabia, Gulf of Naples and Vesuvius; June 2005: Idéfix, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

13 artworks removed from Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum during March 18, 1990 art theft: Public Domain, via FBI Art Crime Team @ https://www.fbi.gov/news/stories/5-million-reward-offered-for-return-of-stolen-gardner-museum-artwork

"Meet Raffaele Imperiale, the Camorra drug boss behind the stolen Van Gogh paintings worth $100 million.": Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb via Twitter Sept. 30, 2016, @ https://twitter.com/GangstersIncWeb/status/781901611706777600

aerial view of Castellammare di Stabia, Gulf of Naples and Vesuvius; June 2005: Idéfix, CC BY SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons @ https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Castellamaredistabbia0001.jpg

For further information:

Associated Press and Sarah Dean for MailOnline. 30 September 2016. "Two Van Gogh Paintings Stolen in a Daring Raid from a Dutch Museum in 2002 Are FOUND Wrapped in a Cloth in a Safe After Tip-off from a Mafia Suspect Led Italian Police to Hideout." Daily Mail > News > World News > Arts.
Available @ http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3815383/2-Van-Gogh-paintings-recovered-Italian-anti-Mafia-police.html

Gangsters Inc. @GangstersIncWeb. 30 September 2016. "Meet Raffaele Imperiale, the Camorra drug boss behind  the stolen Van Gogh paintings worth $100 million." Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/GangstersIncWeb/status/781901611706777600

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Bronze Chinese Beaker.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_10.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 24 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Dancers.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_24.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 March 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Funeral Procession.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 10 March 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Degas Jockeys.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_10.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 3 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Flinck Obelisk.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 March 2017. "Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Manet Cafegoer." Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/03/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_17.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 17 February 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Napoleonic Flag Topper.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/02/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_17.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 20 January 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Couple.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_20.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 13 January 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Seascape.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_13.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 6 January 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Rembrandt Self-Portrait.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art.html

Marriner, Derdriu. 27 January 2017. “Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum Art Theft: Vermeer Concert.” Earth and Space News. Friday.
Available @ https://earth-and-space-news.blogspot.com/2017/01/isabella-stewart-gardner-museum-art_27.html

McKenna, Josephine. 30 September 2016. "Van Gogh Masterpieces Stolen from Amsterdam in Daring Heist 14 Years Ago Turn up in Italian Mafia's Country Mansion." The Telegraph > News.
Available @ http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2016/09/30/van-gogh-paintings-discovered-in-italy-14-years-after-they-were/

Reuters. 8 December 2002. "Two van Gogh Works Are Stolen in Amsterdam." The New York Times > World.
Available @ http://www.nytimes.com/2002/12/08/world/two-van-gogh-works-are-stolen-in-amsterdam.html

"Two Jailed over Van Gogh Thefts." British Broadcasting Corporation > BBC News > Entertainment > Arts & Culture > 22 July 2004.
Available @ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/3928943.stm

"Two Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Back on Display in Amsterdam." Euronews > Netherlands > 22 March 2017.
Available @ http://www.euronews.com/2017/03/22/two-stolen-van-gogh-paintings-back-on-display-in-amsterdam

Van Gogh Museum. 8 February 2017. "Van Gogh Returns - Director Axel Rüger." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlz6QK5pgug

Van Gogh Museum @vangoghmuseum. 21 March 2017. "Read the #VanGoghReturns press release: 'Home at last: after 14 years the stolen Van Goghs are back in the museum.'" Twitter.
Available @ https://twitter.com/vangoghmuseum/status/844140717769441280

Wochit News. 21 March 2017. "After 14 Years, Stolen Van Gogh Paintings Returned To Amsterdam Museum." YouTube.
Available @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Azb9H_92CFQ