Zaandam shooting was likely attempt to rob Monet artwork

A shoot-out took place around 10.35 a.m. near the Zaans Museum in Zaanse Schans on Sunday. The shooting seems to be related to an attempt to steal a Monet artwork worth more than one million euros, art detective Arthur Brand said.

“It appears as if the suspects ran outside with a Monet painting”, the detective who has solved multiple artwork robberies said. The suspects were not successful in taking the artwork, Brand said.

Police and the museum have not yet confirmed the report. Authorities confirmed that a shooting took place Sunday morning on the Schansend where the museum is located. Nobody was wounded and the suspects fled on a motorcycle.

A bystander tried to stop one of the suspects from fleeing, eye-witnesses told the Noordhollands Dagblad, at which point one of the suspects fired shots and dropped the painting.

One suspect was said to be a white man wearing a grey helmet and jeans. The second suspect was described by NH Nieuws, as a tanned man with a beard in dark clothing. The scooter the suspects fled on has since been found on the Zuiderweg.

The painting the burglars tried to steal was called De Vooraan en de Westerhem from Claude Monet. Monet spent four months in Zaandam in 1871. The artwork was said to be worth 1.16 million euros.

(Link in Dutch) Two armed thiefs just tried to steal a Monet from a museum in the Zaanse Schans, The Netherlands. Shots have been fired when people tried to stop them. Most likely the painting is safe but the thieves got away...https://t.co/3LFcVabkHH

— Arthur Brand (art detective) (@brand_arthur) August 15, 2021