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6 Other Stolen Works of Art That Made a Comeback

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Two Vincent van Gogh paintings, snatched from an Amsterdam museum in 2002, were recently found during a sting on the Naples mafia by Italian authorities.

According to ArtNet, billions of dollars worth of art and artefacts are stolen each year. This week’s high profile finds, worth $30 million, are the latest in a series of artworks to have been recovered over the years:

Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, Van Gogh

Axel Ruger, Director of the Van Gogh museum, poses next to "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" (L) and "The Beach At Scheveningen During A Storm" (R) by Vincent van Gogh. The two Van Gogh paintings were stolen in Amsterdam 14 years ago and recently recovered by organized crime investigators in Italy, on Sept. 30, 2016.
Axel Ruger, Director of the Van Gogh museum, poses next to "Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen" (L) and "The Beach At Scheveningen During A Storm" (R) by Vincent van Gogh. The two Van Gogh paintings were stolen in Amsterdam 14 years ago and recently recovered by organized crime investigators in Italy, on Sept. 30, 2016.Mario Laporta—AFP/Getty Images

The 19th century Dutch works, Seascape at Scheveningen and Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen, were recently located in one of the homes of an international drug trafficker with the Camorra crime syndicate, the Guardian reports.

This comes more than a decade after they were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum, when thieves avoided cameras and security guards by entering through the roof. Art thief Octave Durham and his accomplice Henk Sieslijn were convicted of the theft in 2004 but authorities were not able to track the stolen works till now.

 

Adolescence, Salvador Dali and La Musicienne, Tamara de Lempicka

Art investigator Arthur Brand stands with two paintings he recovered, "Adolescence" by Salvador Dali and "La Musicienne" by Tamara de Lempicka, July 26, 2016.
Art investigator Arthur Brand stands with two paintings he recovered, "Adolescence" by Salvador Dali and "La Musicienne" by Tamara de Lempicka, July 26, 2016.Arthur Brand

Armed robbers nabbed paintings by the Spanish surrealist artist Dali and Polish Art Deco painter from a private museum in the Netherlands in 2009. They were both recovered this July by Dutch art detective Arthur Brand, who made the announcement on Twitter.

Brand told the De Telegraf that he estimates the work changed hands around ten times. It was eventually returned to Brand by a criminal gang— who were given the piece by another criminal syndicate in lieu of payment— because they “did not want to find themselves guilty of the destruction or resale of works of art.”

The Scream, Edvard Munch

"The Scream" by expressionist painter Edvard Munch is on display for the public on May 23, 2008 at the Munch Museum in Oslo after it was restored and conserved following its spectacular theft from the museum in Aug. 2004.
"The Scream" by expressionist painter Edvard Munch is on display for the public on May 23, 2008 at the Munch Museum in Oslo after it was restored and conserved following its spectacular theft from the museum in Aug. 2004.Stian Lysberg Solum—AFP/Getty Images

Munch’s haunting image of a skeletal figure clutching its face and wailing was stolen in Feb. 1994 from a Norwegian art museum. It apparently took the thieves 50 seconds to scale a ladder, smash a window of the National Art Museum in Oslo and cut the painting from the wall.

The artwork, which is the most important of four different versions of The Scream painted by the Norwegian artist, proved to be impossible to sell. The thieves were eventually nabbed two months later during an undercover sting by British police.

Odalisque in Red Trousers, Henri Matisse

Photographers take pictures of the painting "Odalisque in Red Pants" by French painter Henri Matisse at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber (MACCSI) in Caracas on Jan. 30, 2003.
Photographers take pictures of the painting "Odalisque in Red Pants" by French painter Henri Matisse at the Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Caracas Sofia Imber (MACCSI) in Caracas on Jan. 30, 2003.Felix Gerardi—AFP/Getty Images

The Caracas Museum of Contemporary Art discovered in 2002 that their painting of a topless, dark haired woman by post-Impressionist painter Matisse was stolen and replaced with a copy.

The painting, valued at $3 million, was recovered in July 2012 when a couple attempted to sell it for $740,000 to undercover FBI agents at a Miami Beach hotel, AP reports. The 1925 work made its homecoming to Venezuela in July 2014.

Fruits sur une table, Paul Gauguin and La femme aux deux fauteuils, Pierre Bonnard

A Carabinieri stands next to the two paintings stolen in London in the 1970s, "Fruits sur une table ou nature morte au petit chien" by French artist Paul Gauguin and "La femme aux deux fauteuils" by Pierre Bonnard, on April 2, 2014.
A Carabinieri stands next to the two paintings stolen in London in the 1970s, "Fruits sur une table ou nature morte au petit chien" by French artist Paul Gauguin and "La femme aux deux fauteuils" by Pierre Bonnard, on April 2, 2014.Andreas Solaro—AFP/Getty Images

Paintings stolen in 1970 from the home of American author Terence Kennedy and Mathilda Marks, heir of British retailer Marks & Spencer, were recovered in Sicily nearly 40 years later from the kitchen wall of an unsuspecting Italian factory worker.

The man, whose name has not been made public, bought the paintings at a lost-property auction in 1975 for around $40 at the time. It was only after his son noticed similarities between a Gauguin painting in an art book to artwork on the wall did the now retired factory worker consult experts and eventually Italian police.

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