ENTERTAINMENT

Van Gogh painting stolen from museum shuttered by COVID-19 pandemic

Mick Krever and Amy Woodyatt CNN
Published Monday, March 30, 2020 2:31PM EDT Last Updated Monday, March 30, 2020 2:34PM EDT

In this June 15, 2016 file photo, a visitor walks past an image of Van Gogh's Self-Portrait during a press event for the world premiere of the Meet Vincent Van Gogh exhibit in Beijing, China. (Mark Schiefelbein / THE CANADIAN PRESS / AP)

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A painting by Vincent van Gogh was stolen overnight from a Dutch museum that is currently closed due the coronavirus pandemic.

The Singer Laren museum, just outside the Dutch capital city of Amsterdam, said van Gogh's "The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring" was stolen in an overnight raid.

The painting -- created in 1884 by the Dutch master, according to Reuters -- was on loan from another Dutch institution, the Groninger Museum in the city of Groningen.

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"I am shocked and unbelievably pissed off," museum director Jan Rudolph de Lorm said during a press conference Monday afternoon.

"It is very bad for the Groninger Museum. It's also very bad for Singer," de Lorm said.

"But above all it is horrible for all of us, because art is there to be seen and shared by all of us, for society as a whole, to bring enjoyment, to bring inspiration, and also to bring comfort. Especially in this difficult time," he added.

Some 93 people have died of coronavirus in the Netherlands in the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of deaths to 864, according to the Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment.