Disappearance of Van Gogh Statue in Assen: New Year’s Eve Associations Speak Out and Potential Return Before Christmas

It remains to be seen whether the disappeared statue of the nineteenth-century painter Vincent van Gogh will be back on its pedestal in Assen before Christmas. The five largest New Year’s Eve associations active in Drenthe and Friesland are not surprised that the city center organization Vaart has now reported the theft of this statue to the police. “That doesn’t immediately make us nervous.”

This is evident from a tour by RTV Drenthe, which spoke to representatives of the five associations: De Oliebol from Vledder, De Nachtdravers from Donkerbroek, De Geitefok from Oldeberkoop, Vesuvius from Elsloo and Tied Zat from Zorgvlied. Immediately after the statue of more than four meters high at the Kop van de Vaart was removed at the beginning of last week, there was a strong suspicion that this was a so-called ‘stunt’ by a New Year’s Eve club. Especially because the image had been replaced by a sign with the text on it ‘I was a bit surprised last night, I’m somewhere else with my brush now.’

The five associations do not say whether they have the image or not. The fact that a theft has been reported does not immediately make the associations nervous. “It is not the case that we would immediately return the statue if we had it,” says Dominique Veenstra of Tied Zat. “That also depends on how great the interests are and whether a lot of hassle is expected. In principle, associations use January 1 as the time to offer what has been ‘borrowed’ again.”

“It just depends on how an association deals with this,” says Harold Vogelzang of De Nachtdravers. “On the one hand, you are talking about associations with volunteers who just want to do something fun and don’t feel like making a fuss. On the other hand, it is also the sport to wait until January 1. Moreover, this situation generates publicity around the stunt. Also for the owners of the image, because that image is now in the news much more often.”

There is no panic yet at the Vesuvius New Year’s Eve association. “If we have the image, we will announce it on January 1. Although I can also imagine that – if we do have the image – we might think about it again in the meantime, because of the declaration,” says Mees van den Berg of Vesuvius.

Various associations have previously been aware that theft has been reported. This happened, for example, three years ago, when De Oliebol made off with the statues of Maya the Bee and Wickie the Viking from Plopsa in Coevorden. And last year De Geitefok took away the letters T, O and P from the Top 2000 in Hilversum.

Janbart Hof of De Geitefok: “As a New Year’s Eve association, you should not give in too quickly, that is part of the game. As an association, you know that there are certain risks when ‘borrowing’ items.”

However, there is also a chance that the statue will return to the Kop van de Vaart earlier than intended. “If a report has been made and there really is a problem, an association may decide to put the statue back earlier than New Year’s Day.” De Geitefok did this last year with the letters of the Top 2000. “Then we finally returned the letters on New Year’s Day.”

2023-12-20 18:01:40


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