The Painting Returns Home

I'm Aaasco, and this is a Sunday Story from Up firstirst Late one morning in september twenty twenty three, the famous Dutch art detective, Arthur Brnd, was pacing around his Amsterdam apartment Waiting for a special delivery. And then twelve o'clock The dooro way. Bran looked out the window and on the stoop he saw a man who he'd been expecting holding an iconic big blue bag I open the door And he was standing there What an IEA b Now, what Braan was expecting inside that IKA bag was a painting Not just any painting, but a Vincent Van Gogh that had been stolen from a Dutch museum But when he peeked into the bag, the only thing I saw was a billow full of blood pillow full of blood Today on the show, a story about an art detective, the criminal underworld, and what it took to solve one of the greatest art heists in recent history We'll be right back Support for this podcast and the following message come from strawberry. me Be honest, are you happy with your job? Are you stuck in a job you've outgrown or never wanted in the first place Are your reasons for staying really just excuses for not leaving? Let a career coach from strawberry. me help you get unstuck Discover the benefits of having a dedicated career coach in your corner and get fifty percent off your first coaching session at strawberry. m slash npr This message comes from Capital onene with the Venture X card Earn unlimited double miles, a three hundred dollars annual Capital O travel credit and access to airport lounges. Capital One. What's in your wallet? Terms apply. Details at capital onene d. comot This message comes from Dell teechnologies. Get long lasting battery life on the Dell XPS laptop powered by Sies three and Telcore. Now from six hundred ninety nine dollars. with exclusive student pricing from five hundred ninety nine dollars. Visit Dell d. com slash deals Wel with the Sunday Story. I'm Aisha Rosco, and today I'm joined by NPR contributor Rebecca Rossman, who has a stranger than fiction story about an art detective and his very unlikely partner. and how together they solved one of the greatest art heists in recent history Rebecca, welcome to the Sunday Story Hi, Aisha, thanks for having me Rebecca, you cover a lot of art and culture stories from your home in Paris Um, and and, you know Paris sounds lovely and is. It's a pretty lovely city. But when I think about art in Paris, of course, I think of the dramatic events at the Louvre last year Oh yes And I covered it when it happened last October. The thieves who broke into the Louvre over the weekend did not make off with the Mona Lisa, but the theft of jewels described as priceless from the museum collection was bad enough Rebecca Rossman is more from Paris. Let's start with some numbers. fourour masked robbers, nine precious jewels Seven minutes. That's how long it took to pull off the heist. I mean it was like a scene from the Oceanss eleven film Except it was real life. A daylight robbery at one of the world's most famous museums The police did eventually catch all the thieves by the way, but it took weeks and remind me like what happened to the stolen jewels? Yeah, over a hundred million dollars worth of precious jewels just gone Experts think the thieves likely disassembled the pieces, sold the jewels, and melted the gold and other precious metals for parts before they got caught That's a huge loss Is it just me or does it seem like there has been like an increase in these museum heist? I feel like we keep hearing about these kind of Bld escapades and you gott to call it that because these are like art Is. so it's like You know, they're just not normal break inss or it doesn't feel that way No, you're absolutely right. You know, I felt the same way But you know, I wondered, is this just a case of a few recent heists that have just been so unforgettable that it's created this sort of illusion of a wider trend Or is there actually an increase? So I did some research, and what I can say is that I counted over a dozen major museum heights since january twenty twenty five alone And late last year, the International Council of Museums teamed up with Interpol to respond So there is something happening here, like there like museum heist are trending, so to speak. Yeah, I would say they are trending. You know, it seems so. And when priceless objects are stolen and disappear into the underworld You know, there's very few people who know how to go and find them But Dutch art detective Arthur Brand is one of them And I went to visit him So in February, I hopped on a train to Amsterdam where I met with Brand at his apartment. And Aisha, I have so much I want to tell you about this experience which I think can help shed some light on these recent heists Well, and I have a lot of questions, right? Like what is an art detective Great question, indeed ar detective that some body who helps the police track stolen art or forgeries. And it's not a real job. So just to explain what Bren means when he says that, you know he's saying, you can't go to university and say, I want to become an art detective The brand actually studied a bunch of different things, but as it turned out, I was not that interested in, let's say Spanish poetry from the seventih century So then, how did he do it? How did he become an art detective Well, Bran was like a lot of college students. He studied a lot of things, history, languages, poetry And he was also really interested in art, but for the longest time, he couldn't find a way to turn any of these things into a real job Then he ends up getting a gig apprenticing with this art dealer who introduced him to a shadowy ecosystem of smugglers, thieves, and forgers Eventually, Bran found his niche. He started advising art buyers Gomian says Atho, Cusso Has it been stolen What's the prize? Is it authentic or forgery? He says that consultation work takes up about half his time, but his real passion is the other half of his time, which is spent on mostly pro bono work helping recover stolen paintings and other artifacts Bran told me what kind of sealed his reputation is his integrity. I thought, the only thing I have to do is to be honest. just be honest. You know, in a world of people who betray each other, backstab each other. if you're honest, you have value, you know Soon he was recovering missing art. and over his twenty year career, Bran says he's helped recover more than one hundred and fifty artifacts. That includes a picasso he tracked down for a chic, a gold ring that belonged to Oscar Wilde, and a Salvador dolly painting His reputation has grown to the point where he's now a trusted household name in the Netherlands, and he even has his own documentary TV show. Med spectre Cermo is from M H in of hisarmy called I how to collect you from the now sequence I mean, so then he's kind of a star in certain places. He is. Then Aisha, in march twenty twenty, Bran got a call from the police. He didn't know it yet This would become one of the biggest cases of his career A van Gogh had been stolen from the Singer Lauren Museum just outside of Amsterdam. The painting is called The Parsonage Garden at Noonan in Spring But Bran quickly realized this wasn't a case he was going to be able to solve alone He needed someone who already had experience with stolen Venos My name is Octo Duram I live in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. I'm fifty three years old I'm known for robbing the Fenog museum in two thousand two I stole two paintings. Just as Brand is the Netherlands most famous art detective, Octave or Ai Durham, is perhaps the country's most famous art thief When we come back, Octav Durham and why Arthur Bran needed him to solve the case of the missing Vang Go This message comes from Better Help Summer can feel like a sprint, kids home, trips to plan, routines flipped upside down It's easy to slip into survival mode, just trying to get through it. Then suddenly, it's over And you're wishing you enjoyed the days just a little bit more therapy can help you slow down and actually be present for the moments that matter. With better helpelp, you can connect with a licensed therapist from anywhere on your schedule. Don't just survive the summer To Thrive, visit betterhelp d. com slash andPR This message comes from MIDI Health, a virtual care platform for women in paramenopause and menopause. CEO Joanna Strober shares the mission behind working with women in midlife It's not just about hormones, it's not just about weight loss medications. We are very much a holistic care platform, and our job is to figure out whatever medications are appropriate for you and offer you those medications MIDI Health, committed to helping women in midlife with pamenopause and menopause care, accessible via telehealth visits at join mdi. com with the Sunday Story and MPR iss Rebecca Rossman We've heard from arrch detective Arthur Brand, a kind of folk hero in the Netherlands for his ability to track missing masterpieces But when another Van Gogh is stolen from the Singer Lauren Museum near Amsterdam Braan knows he needs help The man he turns to is an unlikely choice robber, Oct of Durham I mean fifteen big heists in the Netherlands. I'm involved with eight. att least Okay, so he seem a little proud of that too, Rebecca. he's basically saying that he's a career art thief That's right. Beyond our, Durham has also admitted to and spent time in prison for other crimes like bank robberies and financial fraud. I have to say Durham is fascinating. When we met in Amsterdam in February, he was wearing a black baseball cap and these designer looking sneakers looking as calm, cool, and collected as you'd probably expect He says he grew up in a neighborhood in Amstdam where Petty crime was kind of the norm And I figured out that, hey, I'm quite good at these things. You have born soccer players, born teachers born polican, I'm a born burger I cannot explain, I don't know. I'm very good at it. how does someone become very good at being a burglar? You know, I asked her him that exact question. It's not only the capability of doing it, but you have to have the guts You have to figure it out the way you do, the infrastructure of it all. It's a combination of a lot of things I have to be relax, you know, I don't like violence. I never used violence Durham says he was always calm under pressure, not scared of cops, not scared of prison And he took the work seriously. He started small, stealing bikes when he was a teenager, then moving on to robbing banks as a young adult. And eventually, he sets his sights on the place that would make him famous The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. Well, you know, go hard or go home, right? you know, That sounds like that was his approach. But that still takes a lot of guts, right A lot of guts and a lot of planning The idea to rob the museum happened by chance, actually. You know One day back in two thousand two, when Durh was in his late twenties, he was walking by the Van Gogh Museum. and he noticed the walls of the building were really just floor to ceiling windows So he walks up to a window and taps it I hit the glass and I'm like, oh my God, this is glass. It's not even bulletproof or something, you know? So he starts to think it through. First Durham recruited a friend to help him pull it off This is what they did. Together, they went to the museum early in the morning, climbed a ladder to access the roof, and then smashed a glass window with a hammer. So now they're in, right They grabbed two of Vanogh's lesser known paintings, View of the Sea at Sivveningen and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Noonen. Then they made their escape by shimmying down a rope and running. He says the whole thing took less than four minutes. I mean, that's wild. and you know, it reminds me of the Louvre break in, which was pretty much just smash and grab I know exactly. And so did Durham say why they chose the paintings they took? Did they pay attention or did they just grab what was close You know, I was curious about that too. like Maybe he was a big fan of Vang Gogh What did you think of the paintings themselves? Do you have any attachment to these paintings? No, I thought they were ugly didn't like them My friends told me the next time you still want take a Rembrandt, I said, okay So the truth, Aisha is what you've already caught on to. He knew any Vano would be valuable So he and his partner just grabbed the first two that they saw. Eventually, Durham found a buyer for the paintings, a mob boss in Italy Durham says he bought them for three hundred fifty thousand euros I mean, was this my boss like a big Van Gogh fan Well, I haven't spoken to the mob boss, so I couldn't tell you whether he was a Vano fan But that's not really why criminals want paintings like these Fameous stolen art is almost impossible to sell on the open market But in the underworld, art can become leverage. It's a bargaining chip which is exactly what made Durham's stolen Venos useful, not as art, but as leverage. Now what do you mean by leverage? What does that mean Let me explain what happened after Durham sold them. So in twenty sixteen, this Naples mob boss was charged with drug trafficking. He was facing a long sentence, potentially twenty years So he wanted to make a deal He sent a letter to prosecutors telling them he knew where they could find a couple of missing Vangoes A worldwide search for two Vincent Van Gogh paintings has come to an end So authorities discovered the paintings inside a kitchen wall at the mobster's mom's country home in southern Italy. And in return, the sentence he was facing was reduced from twenty to only eight years Oh, okay. I mean, that that is fascinating. Like that's definitely leverag. basically holding these paintings hostage. What about Durham Well, he got caught about a year after the heist. Authorities had been able to identify him using the museum's security cameras And he was a little bit sloppy. He left a baseball cap at the scene, which was traced to his DNA He served three and a half years in jail and was given a three hundred fifty thousand euro fine. Durham told me though he had trouble paying the fine, so he went back to jail to serve another nine months And Aisha, here's where things take a strange turn in his life Just to explain real quick, in the Netherlands Prison sentences aren't as stiff as they are, say, in the US. And for nonviolent crimes, some prisoners can get leave. is called open count. You can go every weekend you go home and during the day you work outside. So one weekend, Durham's on leave, walking through the streets of Amsterdam near the Van Gogh Museum, in fact And he walks by this restaurant All of a sudden somebody tapped me on the back. comes in front of me. It's Arthur Brnd Bran says to Durham. O, do you know who I am? He said, of course, I know you You are the aritect. just to give you some context here, Durham's Van Gogh robbery in two thousand two happened the year before Brand really launched his career. And like I mentioned earlier, and Brand reiterates, it was one of the biggest cases of its time Of course I was interested in that case Everybody was always talking about are these two f gs I saw him as my arch enemy, you know, he's one of the most famous ar thieves in the world and I'm The architect The brand couldn't help also being intrigued. He kind of wanted to know Durham better I gave him my telephone number Durham wasn't interested. would the numbered away But then shortly after that meeting, Durham's weekend furlough is over. He's back in jail, watching TV And he comes across Brand's documentary series. And I found out how he works. And it works clean, you know, peoplee don't get arrested. It's all about getting the stolen artifacts back. I liked it He liked how trustworthy Bran seemed, and to be honest, he was also curious about the guy So he finds his number on the internet and gives him a call calling for out of out of a jail cell I said a art dudo audio And he was quiet for about ten seconds. It was a shock. They agree that when Durham gets out of jail, they'll meet up. And when that happens Both men say they immediately hit it off. It's not such a big surprise if you think about it. In a way, although they're on these opposite paths, both love the thrill of the hunt And they speak the same language. So they strike up this unusual friendship. Bran says he could tell Durham things he couldn't tell anyone else. At the time he'd recovered what he told me was a fifty million euro Picasso. And for one night It was in his house before being handed over to the police And then at night, I needed to tell somebody. So I thought We will understand the feeling that I have right now, sitting here alone watching O of the most beautiful picasas, so I called Oki By this point, Durham says he's sworn off crime. All he wants to do now is relax into retirement. So fast forward to march twenty twenty Bran gets that call from the police And they told me, Arthur, a new Vanoh has been stolen from the Singer Museum in Laurein. And I said, Ohh my God, not again I mean, this is sounding Just like a movie. I mean, somebody has to be writing a script right now They have to if they do, they have to credit the Sunday story Absolutely. They must credit the Sunday's story copyright. But you're absolutely right. It really is just like in a movie. The first question the police ask brand. They said, Where's Ocy Luckily for Durham, he had an alibi. But the idea that he may be unjustly accused of the theft infuriates him Brand says what irritates Durham even more is the theft itself. I am the Fenor thief, you know, I might be retired now. I am the for Who do these guys think they are? Like Yeahah, it's like they're coming for his jersey, you know, they coming for his record like a kind of like an athlete. Exactly. You know, there's only one Jordan and there's only one Octave Durham. Exactly So to Brand, all of this anger that Durham has, he sees it as an opportunity. So he seizes the moment I said, o. What if you and I together Let's try to find this fgo Duram thinks about it and after making it clear, he will never snitch on another thief. He starts asking around in the criminal underworld, asking if anyone knows anything about this missing Beno Meanwhile, Brand is hitting up his own sources timeim goes by, then one day, about six months after the painting had been stolen A phhoto shows up on the dark web You know, when you steal a painting You cannot if you want to try to find a buyer, you cannot put it on ebay What they do is they make a picture of the painting with a newspaper or aresh newspaper next week has proof I am the owner no. And they send it around kind of like a proof of life photo Yes, exactly. And to Durham and Brand, this post is very good news. It means the painting is out there. Maybe it's even recoverable. So they keep hunting The police do too. and then a year later, the police have a breakthrough. They arrest the thief. But they didn't find the painting. a few more years go by. And then finally, in the late summer of twenty twenty three Brand gets this text out of the blue, which s Mr. Brand Do we have the cd of silence? And I said, No, I'm not a priest, but if I give my word, I will keep my word. And then he said I know where the Fanor is, where it is hidden This man says, lookook I was not involved in this heist I don't want to get arrested. I just want to get rid of this thing Because while stealing a painting may be easy for some people, it can quickly become a huge liability. Bran sends him a message back saying, okay, you know, I get it, you're not involved How can I help get this painting back But the message doesn't go through Maybe this guy is blocked brand Oh my God, he doesn't trust. But then Bran quickly thinks of someone this informant will trust, someone from his own world. Octave Durham. So Brand asked Durham if he will send this informant a message on his behalf He does And this time, it goes through And I said, I don't know who you are. I found out did you talk to Arur. The only thing I can say I guarantee you don't get into trouble if you talk to him. cops won't come. Nothing is just to recover whatever you are, have you know, worry. So here's the Netherlands most famous art thief. Backing up the art detective.s the endorsement, Aisha. Okay and that guy knew me He said I no okay. He said, u if you didn't have gave me this recording I wantn' to do because the guy was terrified. He was a f as hell You know, he was he thought he was a setup A few days go by after that though, and Brand hasn't heard anything. Then it's Saturday, and Brandon Durham are invited to this birthday party of a famous Dutch TV presenter They're in the garden when Bran gets a text from the informant And he says, I see you. And I looked around and he said, behind that tree. So Brand walks behind the tree The informant says, Look, I'm sorry to scare you like this. I just had to make sure there wouldn't be any police here And Braan says, Okay, okay And he said, A, I didn't trust you, but when you sent this clip from Oi Well, if Ocy stands in for him, it must be I'm going to bring it back They make this agreement. The informant says he will come to Brant's house to drop off the painting Then the big day comes and Brand is obviously nervous pacing around his apartment And then at twel o'lock The doorbll way And I went downstairs and I looked through the window and I saw the guy smiling And that takes us back to where we started. The Blue IKEA bag pillowcase covered in blood I open the door And he was standing there What an IkeA bang When I didn't see the painting that g back. the only thing I saw was a pillow full of blood And I said, what the heck? Human blood Okay, well, I got to try to understand like What is the deal with this blood filled pillowcase? Well, I can only tell you what the informant told Brand, which is that he cut his finger while he was packing the painting up and that blood got all over the pillow. And when Bran moved the pillowcase away, There it was, the painting he had been after. I p the F of to onene of the most beautiful moments of my life The informant leaves. Bran says he knows why the informant decided to return the painting, but isn't at liberty to explain the motivation Still, with the painting now in his possession, the first thing Bran does is call the police, who had been waiting at a cafe nearby, along with the museum director. They come over It was so emotional, you know, they have been searching Tens of people It was, you know, it was such a big case, Stolen Ven Gorgh. and there was a lot of pressure nationally and internationally And then we were standing here with the Feno So I asked them, can I have it one night on my wall? And they also said other. No way And what about Durham? Was he there You know, he wasn't. I think Given his past and tension with the police They decided that probably wasn't the best idea. But there's no denying Durham's role in this recovery. How do you feel that you played such an active role in this? I myself And I was really like, yeah, because all the people hey, stall tooth paintings and fangck did fangck de. Now bring one back, shut up So I mean, this kind of reminds me, of course, of, you know, catch Me if you can with Leonardo DiCaprio where it's like the main character goes from being chased by the authorities to working alongside them Yeah, and I have to say, you know for Durham, he loves this new role I have something to do. I'm still involved in crime a good side. Because you must imagine you're get in contact with people and u You do it for a good cause So he's still in the underworld in a way just onn the other side of it. The brand tells this funny story. The other day we walked here in our neighborhood The woman was coming out of a home and she said, Ah, I know you. You are the guy who brought back the Picasso talking about me. and I said, yeah That's correct. And I said, you know who standing next to me that was Ocupus He's the guy who stole the two Van Gs. As you looks, she became pill as you went inside at home I mean, that's definitely an odd couple They are quite the odd couple and I can promise you they both know it too These things are more crazy than fiction, you know? You don't see this stuff in movies Yeah, well, maybe it's time for them to kind of make their debut. You know, maybe. And I think it's fair to say both Brand and Durham are not camera shy at all. But Aisha, what stayed with me most wasn't just how cinematic their story is, It's how unlikely their trust is. You know, Brand doesn't pretend Durham didn't steal those paintings Durham doesn't pretend Brand isn't close to the police, but somehow they found a way to use that tension and that history something stolen back where it belonged. And that's what brought us here Two and a half hours north of Amsterdam in the city of Grooningen is the Grooninger Art Museum. Earlier this month, I traveled to the museum with Arthur Brand I wanted to see him take in the vano that he and Durham had recovered Parsonage Garden at Noonon in spring It's home now mounted on its own wall in one of the galleries. When I see this For me, it's first of all, I think the joy, you know, the joy The painting was done early in Ven Gogh's career and still has these classical lines. It shows the garden, a church in the distance, and a woman draped in a black coat and wearing a matching black hat. brand has a story for her And I always I think I hoped that it was Maho Behmann, his the girl next door He wanted to marry parents didn't allow them. The girl tried suicide. Frano saved though In my imagination, this is the love of his life Moo. Octor Durham wasn't with us on this tour. You can probably imagine why this museum or really most likely any art museum in the Netherlands, wouldn't be ready to welcome him with open arms But we were joined by the former director Andreas Bloom. He'd been in the role when the Parsonage Garden at Noonan in Spring was stolen. And it turns out, he'd also been the director of the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. back in two thousand two, when Durham stole the two Van Goghs there So I had to ask Bloom How he felt about Durham now Especially since he'd helped get this painting back I'm grateful, but I'm a little bit I'm not a friend I mean, I mean it's like Yeah, You have mixed have mixed feelings As he said to him, you know, it's two one now. you know, I toasted all two. I recovered one I maybe I feel better when he is even when he recovers another one And who knows, mayaybe Durham will do just that. But for now, it was only Brand's reaction I could get