A Ukrainian man has voluntarily returned a valuable Dutch painting, stolen over a decade ago during a heist of the Westfries Museum in the Netherlands.
Details how the unidentified art buyer obtained the painting are not publicly known. However, a municipal spokesperson where the museum is located said the man had ‘brought in the painting in good faith and with a certificate of authenticity’, the AFP news agency reports
The masterpiece, if authentic, forms part of a trove of 24 works stolen in 2005, worth a total of EUR 10 million.
In April, Ukraine’s Security Services confirmed they had found four of the paintings, just a week after Dutch voters rejected an E.U.-Ukraine cooperation deal in a nationwide referendum.
Last year, two men claiming to belong to the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) claimed they had found the burgled collection - in an occupied part of eastern Ukraine. A €50 million ransom was demanded for their return, Dutch art expert Arthur Brand said at the time. This was later denied by the group.
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