Recovered stolen masterpieces back on display at Hoorn museum

Five paintings stolen from the Westfries Museum in Hoorn in 2005, will soon be back on display in the museum. The paintings are returning from the Ukraine to Hoorn on Friday, NU.nl reports. The five paintings will be brought to the Rode Steen - the square in front of the museum - by truck around 2:30 p.m. on Friday. They will be presented to the public, accompanied my music and some theater. "After that they are displayed for free until 16 October", Christa van Hees of the museum said to NU. The paintings are initially being displayed as they were found. Two of them are rolled up, so they will be displayed like that too. This is partly to prevent them from getting more damaged. But also "so one gets the feeling of what the paintings survived", Van Hees said. The Westfries Museum will display the paintings until November 13th. After that they will go for restoration. The restoration will cost an estimated 100 thousand euros. The museum is still 72 thousand euros short of that amount. A crowdfunding campaign was launched with Platform Voordekunst to raise that money. The works were part of a collection of more than 20 paintings stolen from the Westfries museum in 2005. In April they were rediscovered after a secret operation in the Ukraine. The recovered works are:

• Women World (1622) by Jacob Waben
• Return of Jephthah (1625) by Jacob Waben
• Kitchen Piece (17th century) by Floris van Schooten
• Peasant Wedding (1671 -1675) by Hendrik Bogaert
• Nieuwstraat in Hoorn (1784 by Isaac Ouwater)

The rest of the stolen paintings are still missing, but Van Hees has hope that they will eventually be returned. "There is no concrete evidence, but the international attention we are getting now may help in tracking down the other missing paintings. We have good contact with the authorities in Ukraine and know they strive to regain our complete collection." she said to the news site. The recovered paintings were initially set to return to Hoorn early in September. But their return was delayed when the Ukraine set extra requirement for their identification.