Stolen Rembrandt Is Recovered In France
A work attributed to Rembrandt has been found almost 15 years after it was stolen from a provincial French museum. “L’enfant à la bulle de savon” (“Child with soap bubble“), an undated painting measuring 60cm x 49cm, was recovered on March 18 in Nice through a joint effort by the city’s criminal police and the central bureau charged with investigating traffic of cultural goods (OCBC). Two men, who were trying to sell the painting, were arrested and are in police custody. The painting is owned by the state and, in 1974, it entered into the collection of the Musée d’art et d’histoire in Draguignan, a small city about 80km from Nice. It was stolen on 14 July 1999, when the local Bastille Day parade served as a diversion, and the thieves gained access to the museum through the municipal library next door. Though the alarm went off, the police arrived too late to catch the burglars.
