The Lempicka and Dalí taken from Spanbroek

Around midday on Friday 1 May 2009, several masked men entered the Scheringa Museum voor Realisme in Spanbroek, North Holland. According to the police statement carried by the news agency ANP, the men threatened a receptionist and a guard with a firearm. No shots were fired and no one was hurt. About 20 people were inside. The men took two works off the wall and left in a small black car. De Volkskrant reports that it was probably a Volkswagen Golf.

The first work was La Musicienne, painted in 1929 by Tamara de Lempicka. It is oil on canvas, 115.8 by 73 centimetres. The second was Adolescence, a small work of 1941 by Salvador Dalí in gouache and ink, painted over a magazine cover from 1939. The museum bought the Lempicka at Sotheby’s in New York in 2002. A museum spokeswoman told de Volkskrant that the price was around one million euros and that it was the first Lempicka in a Dutch museum. Christie’s provenance says the museum bought the Dalí from a Paris gallery in 2006. The museum spokesman, Klaas Wilting, said he thought the thieves had visited before, because they went straight to these two works.

Police asked the public for help, and the case ran on the television programme Opsporing Verzocht. A reward of 250,000 euros was offered. On 17 March 2010, police arrested two men from Breda, aged 29 and 43, on suspicion of involvement. Omroep Brabant reports that they were released two days later for lack of evidence, although police still counted them as suspects. They were not named. The sources consulted record no charge against anyone.

The museum itself did not last. Its founder, Dirk Scheringa, also owned DSB Bank, which failed in October 2009. The bank ABN Amro seized the collection as security, and the museum closed. The Art Newspaper gives 2011 as the closing year. Dutch sources tie its end to the bankruptcy of 2009.

On 27 July 2016 the Dutch art detective Arthur Brand announced that both works had been recovered. The Art Newspaper reports his account. He says he worked on the case for about eight months after a tip. He says the works had been passed between criminal gangs as security for debts, about ten times. A Dutch report quoting him says at least seven. He says the last gang did not know the works were stolen and feared arrest, so it handed them over on his promise not to tell the police. Richard Ellis, founder of Scotland Yard’s Art and Antiques Squad, then took them back for the owners. Brand says no police were involved, so the account cannot be checked against police records. NOS says it is not clear whether anyone was arrested. Christie’s provenance says only that the works were recovered and returned to the insurance company in July 2016. It does not name the insurer.

Both works then went to Christie’s in New York. On 11 November 2018 they were sold in the Impressionist and Modern Art Evening Sale, under the heading “Property Formerly in a European Museum”. La Musicienne, lot 21 A, sold for $9,087,500, including the buyer’s premium. ARTnews reported it as an auction record for Lempicka. Adolescence, lot 2 A, sold for $1,452,500, including the buyer’s premium. It had sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 1990 for $231,000. Brand’s website says the insurer was the seller, but Christie’s names no consignor. No source names the buyers, and the present location of both works is not known.