Over the course of the semester, the online newspaper ArtDaily featured several interesting articles discussing major recent events in both the world of art history and the worldwide artist community. One of the most interesting stories I saw ran the week of October 2nd, and announced the recovery of two missing Van Gogh paintings. The two pieces, "Seascape at Scheveningen" and "Congregation leaving the Reformed Church at Nuenen" were initially realized to have been stolen by art thieves from the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam over 14 years ago. The paintings were recently discovered inside the home of infamous Italian drug lord Raffaele Imperiale in Naples, Italy, after law enforcement performed a raid on his home as part of an ongoing, large scale investigation into Italian organized crime. The discovery of the paintings further confirmed the suspicion that crime organizations are actively interested in obtaining significant works of art, both for financial investment and for buying and selling to obtain funding. …show more content…
Both possessed extreme historical value and significance. Though their frames were removed and "Seascape at Scheveningen" suffered minor damage, the paintings were in relatively good condition, considering all they had been through. At the time of the article, it was unclear when the paintings would be able to return to the museum, as they were technically pieces of evidence in an ongoing criminal investigation. I found this article fascinating because the entire situation sounds like something out of a movie. I knew stolen art and missing pieces had been a problem for art historians and museums in the past, but this article made me realize that these paintings still have to be securely protected, even