Cat burglars nab van Goghs

last updated 8 January 2015

Amsterdam

With just a rope and a ladder, thieves foiled the high-tech alarm system at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam this week and made off with two of Vincent’s early works. The museum entrances are protected at night by closed-circuit cameras, motion detectors, and security guards. So the burglars didn’t use the entrances. They simply propped a ladder up against the building and climbed in from the roof. After snatching two paintings off the wall, they broke a side window and shimmied down a rope to escape. Art experts said that Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (1884) and View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882), valued at several million dollars each, were probably stolen to order for a private collector.