{"id":648437,"date":"2026-10-16T17:52:26","date_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:52:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648437\/"},"modified":"2026-10-16T17:52:26","modified_gmt":"2026-10-16T17:52:26","slug":"he-robbed-the-van-gogh-museum-now-he-wants-to-secure-the-louvre","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/648437\/","title":{"rendered":"He robbed the Van Gogh Museum. Now he wants to secure the Louvre"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n Octave Durham has a question for the Louvre, a year after the revered French museum fell victim to what was dubbed the \u201cheist of the century.\u201d<\/a>\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhy don\u2019t they approach me to do the security?\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Durham is not a security specialist or even a trained guard, but a former art thief. Now \u201cretired\u201d from a life of crime, the 53-year-old describes himself on his Instagram account as the \u201cDutch Lupin,\u201d inspired by the gentleman thief made famous by French star Omar Sy on Netflix.\n <\/p>\n

\n There\u2019s no doubting Durham\u2019s credentials. \u201cI robbed banks, safety deposits, armored trucks. You name it, I robbed it,\u201d he said in a phone interview.\n <\/p>\n

\n Then, in 2002, he and an accomplice broke into Amsterdam\u2019s Van Gogh Museum, making off with two paintings by the post-impressionist. Durham was later apprehended and served time in prison for the crime, but not before selling the paintings to a notorious crime boss who was later found in possession of the art.\n <\/p>\n

\n These days, Durham is still interested in stolen art \u2013\u2013 but with the aim of doing good. He uses his underworld contacts to help recover some of these priceless artworks. Durham never gets paid, saying he does it mostly for \u201cfun,\u201d adding \u201cit feels good to make people happy.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n But suggest he is an informant and he immediately hits back. \u201cI\u2019m not an informant, I\u2019m a contact. It\u2019s a big difference. I don\u2019t talk to police.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Durham<\/p>\n

\"Stolen<\/p>\n

\"Brand<\/p>\n

\n The person he does talk to is Arthur Brand, a Dutch self-styled detective known as the \u201cIndiana Jones of the art world\u201d who works alongside international police forces. According to Brand, Durham was key to the recovery of another stolen Van Gogh that made headlines in 2023. Taken from a Dutch museum in 2020, \u201cSpring Garden\u201d was later handed to Brand in a blue IKEA bag \u2013\u2013 and he subsequently transferred it to the authorities.\n <\/p>\n

\n Brand has since helped recover a Pieter Brueghel masterpiece stolen in Poland in the 1970s and a painting looted from a Jewish family by the Nazi Hermann G\u00f6ring, among other things. \u201cI\u2019ve had Picassos at my home and a ring of Oscar Wilde,\u201d said Brand, who earns his living advising art collectors on prospective purchases.\n <\/p>\n

\n The detective work is a pro bono side hustle \u2013\u2013 and one that appears likely to get busier. Just hours after the Louvre heist last October \u2013\u2013 which saw thieves strike during broad daylight and make off with Napoleonic-era treasures \u2013\u2013 another French museum was similarly targeted. This time, burglars stole gold and silver coins worth more than $100,000.\n <\/p>\n

\n Since then, attacks on museums, galleries and other cultural institutions have never been far from the headlines. Two Renoirs were stolen from the Renoir Museum on the French Riviera last month (and found weeks later). Another Renoir, a C\u00e9zanne and a Matisse were taken from the Magnani Rocca Foundation near Parma, Italy, in March (and also later recovered), while four Renaissance paintings by Antonello da Messina were seized from a Sicilian museum in August. That same month, criminals nabbed a $4 million diamond necklace from Vienna\u2019s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n A recent report by the European Policing Agency (Europol)<\/a> warned that museum thieves are becoming increasingly brazen, violent and aggressive.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cArt theft has always been there,\u201d said Brand. \u201cI always say if art was invented on Monday, the first art was stolen on Tuesday and the first art was forged on Wednesday.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Nevertheless, he admits things have ramped up over the past year since the Louvre heist. \u201cI talk to ex-thieves, and they hear from current thieves who say, \u2018wow, the Louvre, let\u2019s do it.\u2019 They\u2019re thinking: \u2018If that\u2019s possible, our local museum must be even more simple.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n When these heists happen, would-be art thieves are emboldened, Brand says. \u201cBanks these days have less cash, jewelry shops are better secured, so they turn to museums. They\u2019re vulnerable. It\u2019s like a candy shop for thieves.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n While the problem is global, European galleries are particularly enticing for burglars, according to Brand. For one, much of the world\u2019s commercially valuable art hails from there. And then there\u2019s security.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cMuseums in Europe don\u2019t have armed guards,\u201d he said, adding that many are housed in historic buildings dating as far back as the 15th century. \u201cIt\u2019s not Fort Knox.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Such \u201ccopycat\u201d crimes following the Louvre heist are regarded as relatively risk-free, according to Ibrahim Balut, a museum security expert based in Belgium.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWhat we are seeing more and more of is smash and grab. Offenders aren\u2019t scared anymore,\u201d he said. \u201cIn Vienna, in the Renoir Museum and in the Louvre, they entered and left with the objects in less than three minutes. They come well prepared and attack in a short time.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

\n Having recently visited the Louvre, Durham believes the world\u2019s largest art museum is still vulnerable. \u201cIt has weak spots all over,\u201d he said, adding that he spotted cracked windows. \u201cThey have secured the spot where they did the burglary. They put an iron fence over the entrance where they went in and a camera on the top. But what is the chance they will go back to the same spot? All the windows on the side are still the same.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The Louvre did not respond to a request for comment from CNN.\n <\/p>\n

\n The Europol report, meanwhile, revealed that these heists are increasingly using tools such as sledgehammers, axes, crowbars \u2013\u2013 and even explosives.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cOffenders are using more heavy material because everything is battery powered now,\u201d explained Balut. \u201cSo they can use electrical equipment that are flexible, easier to handle, and they can attack quite fast.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n It is the very nature of museums that makes them vulnerable, said Balut. \u201cThe mission and vision of a museum is to be open. It\u2019s not like a bank or jewelry store where you cannot enter easily. In a museum it\u2019s all open and the only thing holding you back from going immediately towards an object is a showcase or maybe a guard.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

\n \u201cMuseums are investing more and more in security, but you have to understand that criminals are also getting more educated about things,\u201d he added. \u201cThey have been to the museum to do a dry run, to see the items, what they can easily grab, how easy it is to flee.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Balut offers cultural institutions expert safety guidance, or, as he sees it: \u201cI sell time. When criminals see that the reaction time of security and police is far faster, they will never do it again.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n That involves a strategy that invests in people and not just cameras. \u201cSecurity awareness must be at the forefront of everyone\u2019s minds, not just the security staff but the museum directors, the curators, the restorers.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n The focus of art crime has also changed, according to Brand. \u201cIn the last 10 years, we\u2019ve seen a shift to gold, silver, diamonds. You can melt them down or recut diamonds, leaving no evidence.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n So why are priceless paintings still being targeted?\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cIt\u2019s stupidity,\u201d said Brand. \u201cThey see that a painting by Van Gogh could be worth 50 million, so they think \u2018well, it takes four minutes, let\u2019s go and grab it.\u2019 And then the problems start.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Former<\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey turn on the television the day after and find out that this painting is flagged in every database. Sometimes they think they\u2019ll find a Dr. No, some villain who has this stash of stolen art. But they don\u2019t exist.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Nevertheless, Brand admits some steal art as a kind of bargaining tool. \u201cIn the underworld, a stolen painting is worth 10% of what its value is on the market so it could be collateral,\u201d he said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cSometimes a mafia boss buys a stolen painting as insurance. Then one day, when he gets caught, he\u2019ll say: \u2018You want to give me 20 years for drugs, but I have a stolen Van Gogh. Let\u2019s make a deal.\u2019\u201d\n <\/p>\n

A museum\u2019s eyes and ears<\/p>\n

\n Another group of people with whom Brand is in regular contact is museum staff.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThey\u2019re panicking,\u201d he said. \u201cYou must understand that people who work in museums, and it could be a curator or an expert or a museum director, they study art. They love art. It\u2019s so out of their world, these crimes, and they don\u2019t even want to think about it. So they are not prepared.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Lynda Albertson, head of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art, said criminals exploit a combination of factors: \u201cValuable, portable objects, in museums with identifiable security weaknesses, whose protection needs exceed their currently exercised security resources.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"Brand<\/p>\n

\n She said that while some museums are \u201cdoing a great deal\u201d to improve security measures, others \u201chave serious gaps.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cA camera can give you an excellent record of a theft without stopping it. Protection requires layers: current risk assessments, appropriate physical barriers and display cases, maintained alarms, trained staff, and a response that has actually been rehearsed,\u201d said Albertson. Things like these matter \u201cjust as much as having someone watching a room or the entrance.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cUnfortunately, donors rarely queue up to put their names on an upgraded alarm system or to pay for additional guards, but those investments can determine whether a collection is targeted or not,\u201d she said.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cWe cannot keep calling heritage priceless while treating its protection as an optional expense.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n Lynda Albertson, head of the Association for Research into Crimes against Art\n <\/p>\n

\n As for Durham, he would happily give the Louvre some pointers, if given half a chance. \u201cIf they asked me, I would show them that I can still get in.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Octave Durham has a question for the Louvre, a year after the revered French museum fell victim to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":648438,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[437,434,435,436,438,146,85,46],"class_list":["post-648437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-artsanddesign","tag-artsdesign","tag-design","tag-entertainment","tag-il","tag-israel"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=648437"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/648437\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/648438"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=648437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=648437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=648437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}