A Dutch art detective has recovered a precious Vincent van Gogh painting that was stolen from a museum in a daring midnight heist during the Covid lockdown three-and-a-half years ago, police said on Tuesday. Arthur Brand – dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” – took possession of the missing painting, the 1884 “Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring” on Monday. Brand said frequent calls by him and the Dutch police to hand back the stolen artwork finally paid off when a man, whose identity was not revealed, handed Brand the painting in an IKEA bag, covered with bubble-wrap and stuffed in a pillow casing.
