A painting by Pieter Bruegel the Younger, stolen from the Gdańsk Museum in 1974, has returned to the Netherlands thanks to the efforts of a detective dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the art world.”
The work of the famous Flemish master, “The Woman Carrying Coals,” which disappeared more than half a century ago, was recently discovered at the museum in the city of Gouda in the Limburg province in southeastern Netherlands. The painting was stolen from the National Museum in Gdańsk, Poland, in 1974.
This small painting, only 17 cm in diameter, depicts a peasant woman with smoldering coals and a pot, symbolizing an old Dutch proverb about hypocrisy. The whereabouts of the painting had remained a mystery, and there were rumors about a possible connection to Polish secret services. When the artwork appeared in an exhibition last year, the investigation was entrusted to Arthur Brand, who had already gained fame for several high-profile discoveries.
The painting was transferred to the Gouda museum from a private collection and was not listed in the registry of stolen artworks, which allowed the museum staff to include it in the exhibition. However, shock came when, according to the Dutch art magazine Vind, Brand recognized it as the stolen original piece.
According to Brand, in his investigation, he found that after the theft, the original had been replaced with a reproduction. The deception was uncovered only after a museum employee accidentally damaged the frame in 1974. Adding drama to the story is the fact that the Polish customs officer who uncovered the illegal export of art through the port of Gdynia died shortly before he was to be questioned.
Currently, Dutch police are working with their Polish counterparts to return the painting to its homeland.
