A Dutch detective and art expert has discovered a priceless collection of stolen documents from the 15th to 19th centuries, including several archives listed by UNESCO, belonging to the world’s first transnational corporation.
Arthur Brand, dubbed the “Indiana Jones of the art world” for his high-profile recoveries of stolen masterpieces, said the latest discovery was one of the most significant of his career.
“During my career, I have been able to return fantastic stolen works of art, from Picasso to Van Gogh… but this find is one of the highlights of my career,” Brand told AFP.
Many of the documents tell of the early days of the Dutch East India Company (VOC), whose global trade and military operations contributed to the “golden age” of the Netherlands, when this state was a world superpower.
VOC merchants crossed the globe, turning the Netherlands into a global trading power, but in doing so exploited and oppressed their conquered colonies.
The company played a key role in the slave trade during a period when generations of slaves were forced to labour on Dutch plantations. The Dutch government has acknowledged that “slavery enabled the Netherlands to become a global economic power.”
The 17th-century VOC documents provide “a fascinating insight into events at that time in places such as Europe, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Latin America,” Brand said. One document from 1602 describes the first meeting of the VOC, at which its famous logo was designed, considered to be the world’s first corporate logo.
The company was also a leading diplomatic force, and one document recounts a visit in 1700 by high-ranking VOC officials to the court of the Great Mughal emperor in India.
“As the Netherlands was one of the most powerful countries in the world at the time in terms of military, trade, shipping and colonial affairs, these documents are part of world history,” Brand said.
UNESCO agrees and has included the VOC archives in its Memory of the World documentary heritage collection. “The VOC archives constitute the most complete and extensive source on early modern world history,” the UNESCO website states.
This treasure trove also contains the early ship’s logs of one of the world’s most famous admirals, Michiel de Ruyter, whose exploits are still studied in naval academies today.
De Ruyter became famous for his daring raid in 1667, during which he attacked the English fleet in the Medway River, which became one of the greatest humiliations in the history of the world’s navy.
The ship’s logs written in his own hand recount the admiral’s first experience in naval combat — the Battle of St. Vincent in 1641 against the Spanish fleet.
“Indiana Jones of the art world” career record
An art historian gained worldwide fame after helping German authorities find bronze statues of horses by Nazi sculptor Josef Thorak, which once belonged to Adolf Hitler. He has more than 200 successful cases to his credit, closed thanks to his unconventional approach and connections in criminal circles.
In 2016, he found paintings by Salvador Dali and Tamara de Lempicka, which were believed to have been lost forever in gang circles.
In 2019, Brand found Pablo Picasso’s “Portrait of Dora Maar,” stolen in the late 1990s. He spent four years searching for the €25 million painting.
The painting was stolen in 1999 from the yacht of Saudi Sheikh Abdulmohsen Abdulmalik Al Sheikh while it was awaiting repairs in Antigua. Twenty years ago, the stolen painting was valued at €4 million. The search was unsuccessful, so “Portrait of Dora Maar” was considered irretrievably lost.
However, in 2015, art detective Arthur Brand heard about a “Picasso painting stolen from a yacht” that had fallen into criminal circles in the Netherlands. At the time, he had no idea that it was the same lost Picasso masterpiece. Later, the detective retrieved the masterpiece from the thief.
