The secret life of a stolen Van Gogh

I'm Ayesha Roscoe, and this is a Sunday story from Up First. Late one morning in September 2023, the famous Dutch art detective, Arthur Brand, was pacing around his Amsterdam apartment waiting for a special delivery. And then at 12:00, the door got wet. Brand looked out the window, and on the stoop, he saw a man who he'd been expecting holding an iconic big blue bag. So I opened the door, and he was standing there with an IKEA bag. Now what Brand was expecting inside that IKEA bag was a painting, not just any painting, but a Vincent van Gogh that had been stolen from a Dutch museum. But when he peeked into the bag The only thing I saw was a pillow full of blood. A pillow full of blood. Today on the show, a story about an art detective, the criminal underworld, and what it took to solve one of the greatest art heists in recent history. We'll be right back. This message comes from ActiveCampaign. Frustrated with spending hours on AI outputs that don't feel like your brand? Active Intelligence 2.8 from ActiveCampaign keeps you from sounding like everyone else. Describe your tone, your rules, and your brand once, and Active Intelligence builds every email and campaign for you with on brand images and content that sounds like you wrote it. Marketers are saving ten hours every week and getting campaigns they're proud to put their name on. Import your brand in seconds at activecampaign.com/ai. This message comes from NPR sponsor, Rocket Money. Cancel your unwanted subscriptions and reach your financial goals faster with Rocket Money. Go to rocketmoney.com/npr today. This message comes from Wise, the smart way to manage your money around the world. With Wise, you can send, spend, and receive money in over 40 currencies at the mid market rate. Learn more at wise.com. T's and c's apply. We're back with a Sunday story. I'm Ayesha Rasco. And today, I'm joined by NPR contributor Rebecca Rossman, who has a stranger than fiction story about an art detective and his very unlikely partner and how, together, they solved one of the greatest art heists in recent history. Rebecca, welcome to The Sunday Story. Hi, Ayesha. Thanks for having me. So, Rebecca, you cover a lot of art and culture stories from your home in Paris. And, you know, Paris sounds lovely. And It is. It's a pretty lovely city. But when I think about art in Paris, of course, I think of the dramatic events at the Louvre last year. Oh, yes. And I covered it when it happened last October. The thieves who broke into the Louvre over the weekend did not make off with the Mona Lisa, but the theft of jewels described as priceless from the museum collection was bad enough. Rebecca Rossman has more from Paris. Let's start with some numbers. Four masked robbers, nine precious jewels, seven minutes. That's how long it took to pull off the heist. …