Two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh were recovered by anti-Mafia police in Naples last week, nearly 14 years after they were stolen from a museum in Amsterdam. Footage from the Italian Guardia di Finanza shows the discovery of the paintings after they were hidden in one of the houses of an international drug trafficker in Castellammare di Stabia, near Naples during a sting operation targeting organised crime.
In 2002, the paintings were stolen from the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam, after thieves used a ladder and sledgehammer to break into the building. The works were valued at €89 million, or about $100 million, at the time. The masterpieces - View of the Sea at Scheveningen (1882) and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuene (1884) - were painted early in the artists's career.