We are talking about 4 of the 24 paintings stolen from westfries Museum in Hoorn city. At the end of 2015 the Director of the Museum stated that according to his sources, the paintings are in the hands of Ukrainian nationalists

the security Service of Ukraine on Friday, 14 April reported that he found four paintings by Dutch artists of the SEVENTEENTH-ХVIII centuries, stolen in 2005 from the westfries Museum in Hoorn. Pictures were presented at a press-конференции with the participation of Minister of foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin and Ambassador of the Netherlands. Just from the Museum in Hoorn in 2005, 24 paintings were stolen, and 70 items of silver. The fate of the rest of the meeting remains unknown.

Recall that in December 2015, the Director of the westfries Museum ed Gerding (Ad Geerdink) stated that, according to him, the stolen collection is in the hands of representatives of the Ukrainian volunteer battalion "OUN". The Museum demanded a ransom of 50 million euros (then reducing the request to 5 million euros) for the return of the paintings. To confirm what pictures are they members of the "OUN" provided a photo of one of the works next to the fresh number of Ukrainian Newspapers. They demanded that the whole process of negotiations and the exchange went without the involvement of the Ukrainian authorities. Among the figures involved, in the opinion of a Museum holding stolen paintings, had been the Deputy commander of the battalion "OUN" Boris Gumenyuk, leader of nationalist party "Freedom" Oleg Tyahnybok and former Chairman of the SBU Valentin Nalyvaychenko. After negotiations with the Blackmailers at an impasse, the Museum decided to return the work through the official channels.

the security Service of Ukraine reports that after a request from Dutch law enforcement agencies, conducted an extensive investigation on the territory of 10 regions of the country for 4 months. First established location of the two pictures, then two more. Intelligence agencies have established that the theft was organized by members of international criminal groups, which included immigrants from Donbass. The search for the other paintings continues.

On the website westfries Museum published images of paintings found SBU. They are called the most important among those that were stolen in 2005. This is the work of "Peasant wedding" Bogart Hendrik (Hendrick Boogaert), "Scene in the kitchen," Floris van Schoten (for Floris van Schooten), as well as paintings by Jacob Wabana (Jacob Waben) "the Return of Jephthah" and "Sorority". The Museum staff are concerned about the condition of the paintings was found. Judging by the press photos with-конференции, two works changed the frame, and on two – tracks twisting.

the Material was prepared by Maria Onuchin, AI

Sources: sbu.gov.ua, wfm.nl, artinvestment.ru