Two Laughing Boys, painted by Dutch painter Frans Hals in 1626, has disappeared again from the Hofje van Mevrouw Van Aerden museum in the Netherlands. The painting was stolen in the early hours of August 26, marking the third theft of this artwork since the end of the 1980s. The masterpiece was stolen in 2011 and 1988, and found six months and three years later respectively.
The thieves are said to have "forced the back door", setting off the alarm around 3:30 am, but had already vanished when the authorities arrived at the scene. "We have no clue as to the location of the painting at this time," said Hanneke Sanders, spokesperson for the Dutch police department.
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Private art detective Arthur Brand (also known as "the Indiana Jones of the art world"), who has recovered several major works including a portrait by Pablo Picasso and a Byzantine mosaic of St. Mark dating to the 6th century, is contributing to the investigation. According to him, the incident is similar to the earlier thefts and does not appear to be extremely elaborate. The museum is small and does not present major security difficulties for a theft of this kind. “The alarm goes off, but these guys can be gone in three minutes,” he noted.
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The institution, closed due to Covid-19, declined to comment. Police have called for witnesses, saying any video or information would be welcome as the investigation is just beginning.
Those responsible for the 1988 theft were arrested three years after the work's disappearance. In 2011, four people aged 48 to 62 were charged within six months of the incident. Brand believes that the Hals painting was chosen precisely because thieves see it as valuable because of the previous thefts.
Completed in 1626 by Frans Hals, one of the most influential artists of the Dutch Golden Age, Two Laughing Boys shows two teenagers laughing, one holding a bottle of beer. The work, estimated to be worth between $17-18 million, was featured on the catalog cover of a 1937 exhibition at the Frans Hals Museum. A year earlier, in 1625, the artist had painted Two Boys Playing and Singing, a somewhat similar everyday scene that marked his transition to a more informal style. Of Flemish origin, Frans Hals settled in the Dutch city of Haarlem in 1591 and worked there until his death in 1666.
In March, a Vincent van Gogh painting was stolen from the Singer Laren museum, also in the Netherlands. For Arthur Brand, there are similarities between the incidents, and it is not uncommon for such works to serve as bargaining chips for criminals. The detective, who is already investigating the theft of the Van Gogh, has just added Hals to his list. “The hunt is on,” he said on Twitter.
