[HN Gopher] Stolen van Gogh painting returned in an IKEA bag
___________________________________________________________________
Stolen van Gogh painting returned in an IKEA bag
Author : Brajeshwar
Score : 155 points
Date : 2023-09-14 16:15 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.smithsonianmag.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.smithsonianmag.com)
| iamnotsure wrote:
| Stolen attention returned in a HN comment.
| CobrastanJorji wrote:
| Wait a second, can attention be returned?
|
| Like, I can take attention with billboards and pop-up ads and
| flashy lights and loud noises, but is there some way I could do
| something that would do the opposite?
|
| I suppose I could destroy other people's advertising, but
| that's more reducing the theft. I suppose some organizational
| tools might count? What's the opposite of taking attention?
| tspike wrote:
| Giving attention? Actively investing your attention in
| someone else's wellbeing?
| lamplovin wrote:
| It's like a real life adaptation of the book, Goldfinch
| unreal6 wrote:
| One of my favorite novels of all time
| munificent wrote:
| Can you give me some thoughts on what you enjoyed about the
| book? I read it several years ago after reading many many
| glowing reviews but I just couldn't get much out of the book
| at all. What did I miss?
| [deleted]
| bmelton wrote:
| I think everything in it is fairly subtle (relative to
| modern television at least) and there are a lot of them.
| It'd be reductive for me to refer to it as a coming of age
| story, but I often do that despite knowing it's wrong, but
| coming of age stories generally have to hit me over the
| head with their point before I stop seeing it as a
| character piece.
|
| For me, the themes in Goldfinch are about art (and the
| power it can hold over us,) how messy relationships can be
| despite good intentions (and how much care they require,)
| the role of beauty in the world, and the search for
| identity.
| zamalek wrote:
| After watching way too much Baumgartner Restoration, do paintings
| with such status receive much conservatorship? The varnish on
| that painting is obnoxiously aged.
| toyg wrote:
| They do, but I expect it becomes a big political issue - can
| you imagine how much it must cost in insurance alone, as soon
| as you mention the painting might have to be touched...? And
| then you'll need a committee to agree on how much varnish
| should be stripped, etc etc.
| internet101010 wrote:
| They'll just have someone do it for free in exchange for IP
| rights so that nobody can ever take a photo of it.
| greggsy wrote:
| An experienced conservationist would know exactly what to do,
| and scope the work accordingly. It would go on show for a
| short period to capitalise on the current interest and
| attract foot traffic to the gallery, before being treated.
| londons_explore wrote:
| Conservator 'best practice ' changes pretty much every
| decade, with each generation of conservators dismayed at
| all the damage done by their predecessors...
| hinkley wrote:
| Conservators: the dentists of the art world.
| ndiddy wrote:
| Sounds like software development
| krisoft wrote:
| That is true, but![1] This is well understood by modern
| conservators, so they use reversible materials as much as
| possible. For example paints which can be any time
| cleaned up with a weak solvent specifically selected such
| that it doesn't attack the base painting at all. The any
| time is a very important property here. Normal paints
| "set" after a while. You might clean them off the canvas
| a day later easily, with some difficulty a year later,
| and 30 years later it becomes basically impossible. But
| conservation paints don't do this. They can be cleaned up
| a day after the work is done, or 200 years after.
|
| The other important property is that these materials are
| often designed to show up visibly under UV light. That
| way they can perfectly blend in the base paint under
| normal gallery lights (if desired, this is not always
| desired) but they will always show up for someone who
| investigates the painting in the future.
|
| 1: All my knowledge about the topic comes from the
| aforementioned Baumgartner Restoration YouTube channel:
| https://www.youtube.com/c/BaumgartnerRestoration
| rasz wrote:
| Similar dilemmas in vintage car collecting circles. Some like
| them fully restored to pristine condition, others leave patina
| and every imperfection as is. For example this "King Leopold"
| Bugatti 59 https://youtu.be/MzZIk05pAJ8?feature=shared&t=1017
| sold for $12mil few years back
| https://luxurylaunches.com/auctions/a-vintage-bugatti-type-5...
| 1MachineElf wrote:
| If this was all an elaborate ruse to make us want to go shopping
| at IKEA, then I'll concede that it worked.
| [deleted]
| londons_explore wrote:
| Someone who is really good at finding lost artworks hey....?
|
| Is there good evidence that this guy or his friends didn't steal
| the artworks in the first place?
| deepsun wrote:
| Same thoughts. It's hard to navigate the criminal underworld
| having clean clothes yourself.
|
| But the painting is back.
| civilitty wrote:
| The thief left DNA evidence at the scene and eventually pleaded
| guilty. The person in TFA didn't "find" the artwork, someone
| came to him with it in order to arrange a handover without
| getting into legal trouble themselves.
| rasz wrote:
| >without getting into legal trouble themselves.
|
| How would that work? Police: Hey thanks for returning stolen
| property, since it was in your possession we will charge you
| now, that is unless we learn who gave it to you.
| EA wrote:
| BTW: those durable plastic carry bags from IKEA are a bit of a
| lifehack for me. They are just a few USD each and they carry a
| lot of volume and weight. I keep a couple folded up in my vehicle
| and in the garage. They are great for carrying lots of groceries,
| firewood, and other items...such as valuable pieces of art.
| jetrink wrote:
| Also dogs! New York banned dogs on the subway unless they fit
| in a bag or other container, so New Yorkers have been dressing
| their dogs in Ikea bags with four holes cut in the bottom.
|
| https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/10yzyq6/nycs_answer_t...
| victorbjorklund wrote:
| And laundry! That is what we use them for in sweden!
| wkat4242 wrote:
| A few USD?? Wow here they're 50 euro cents
| TylerE wrote:
| $0.99. Probably .9 euro or something.
| blamazon wrote:
| There's different kinds of those bags. My favorite is a
| rectangular prism, has a zipper and backpack straps and sells
| for like $4.99. I think it may have been discontinued in my
| area, or it is of sporadic availability?
| swader999 wrote:
| They work well for bullion too.
| sva_ wrote:
| Some even make backpacks out of them.
| https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13013868
| neilv wrote:
| https://web.archive.org/web/20200301084451/http://sandiegomi.
| ..
| kzrdude wrote:
| Also syndicated on https://ikeahackers.net/2016/12/ikea-
| ultralight-backpacking-...
| UberFly wrote:
| Anyone who enjoys these kind of stories should check out the
| series "Raiders of the Lost Art". They are on Curiosity Stream
| and maybe elsewhere. Good stuff.
| moffkalast wrote:
| Reminds me of that Rembrandt/Renoir heist, a classic documentary
| by the Internet Historian.
|
| https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iPlFdIpgioI
| wkat4242 wrote:
| They bought the wrong VANGOGH and wanted to return it
| [deleted]
| adolph wrote:
| I wonder if Nils will get his $9M back?
|
| _Authorities arrested the culprit behind the heist in April
| 2021. . . . A Dutch court sentenced Nils to eight years in prison
| and ordered him to pay nearly $9 million in compensation to the
| owner of the Hals._
|
| _After Nils' arrest, the painting circulated in the criminal
| underworld, where it was used a down payment. But nobody was
| willing to buy it, as "the thieves had been convicted, and
| anybody possessing it would risk a hefty fine," writes Claire
| Moses for the New York Times._
| mikey_p wrote:
| Tha Hals is a different painting than the van Gogh.
| here4U wrote:
| I guess the IKEA bag was stolen too
| [deleted]
| 2-718-281-828 wrote:
| Stolen IKEA bag returned with van Gogh painting in it.
| petre wrote:
| _> Prosecutors believe Nils stole the van Gogh on the orders of
| Peter Roy K., a Dutch shipping mogul involved in drug smuggling,
| who hoped to use the artwork as leverage for negotiating a
| reduced prison sentence_
|
| Roy K: "Two years for the stolen van Gogh?"
|
| Prosecutor: "Right. On top of what you got for dealing drugs?"
| [deleted]
| onlyrealcuzzo wrote:
| Wait. Am I reading this right?
|
| Did he commit a crime to get less jail time?
|
| Wouldn't this be like kidnapping the police chief's child to
| try to get less prison time?
|
| Someone please tell me it didn't work.
| mschuster91 wrote:
| An ages old tactic, take someone or in this case something
| hostage to be ransomed for letting someone get out of jail.
| The most well-known cases in Germany involved the RAF (the
| left-wing terrorists, not the British Air Force), but it also
| works with nation states such as China taking two Canadians
| hostage to exchange them against a Huawei executive, or in
| war times with spy and prisoner-of-war exchanges.
|
| The thing is, the stakes for something like that are super
| high, at least as a criminal as you need someone/something
| that is immeasurably valuable, stuff like the Crown Jewels or
| a masterpiece worth many millions of dollars, as a starter
| for negotiations - and that is usually just as well
| protected.
|
| [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Detention_of_Michael_Spavor
| _an...
| saikatsg wrote:
| Meet Gerald Blanchard, who did something similar
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerald_Blanchard
| awb wrote:
| Sounds like he successfully bargained after this arrest,
| but didn't necessarily pre-meditate the theft in order to
| reduce a future prison sentence.
| jadbox wrote:
| It's kinda amusing that his last great crime after prison
| was stealing PlayStations from Best Buy...
| WeylandYutani wrote:
| In the Dutch system the judge has the last word not the
| prosecution so no it doesn't work.
| petre wrote:
| Of course the judge has the last word. It was just a
| hypothetic _prosecutor joke_. I found it quite stupid that
| Roy K allegedly comissioned another crime, holding a
| painting hostage to get a reduced sentence. What?! That
| only put a different person in prison and potentially
| damaged the painting. I don 't understand these people
| (drug dealers, nazis, climate activists) who keep stealing,
| looting and defacing Vincent van Gogh's legacy. His life
| was quite miserable as it is, why tarnish his legacy as
| well?
| cherrycherry98 wrote:
| I was shocked to learn that this is a thing but it does
| happen. Organized crime groups steal art that they can use to
| negotiate lighter sentences.
|
| It is believed that the Mafia stole Rembrandt's "Storm in the
| Sea of Galilee", among other works from the Gardner Museum
| for this reason. The documentary series "This Is a Robbery"
| goes into this heist and is a good watch.
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/This_Is_a_Robbery https://en.
| m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isabella_Stewart_Gardner_Mus...
| paulpauper wrote:
| hard, if not impossible to sell it. that is the problem with
| stolen artwork from the perspective of thief
___________________________________________________________________
(page generated 2023-09-14 23:00 UTC)