ok, so this van gogh robbery thing has me puzzled........ the following is from msnbc......


Leighton said the missing paintings were painted early in van Gogh's career. They ''have no market value since they were not for sale, but comparable paintings sold for several million dollars,'' he said.
''View of the Sea at Scheveningen,'' a small picture measuring about 13 inches high by about 20 inches wide, of a boat setting off into a stormy sea was painted in two days in 1882. The thickly applied paint contains grains of sand blown onto the canvas from the beach where van Gogh worked. It is one of his first major pieces.
''Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen,'' painted in 1884-85, shows the village church where van Gogh's father served as pastor. That painting measures about 16 inches high by about 13 inches wide.

ok, so why would someone go to the trouble of stealing 2 paintings from this fine musuem- and take those two particular canvases? why not one of the more famous sunflowers or irises? we visited this museum nearly a year ago- i am trying to envision the location of these pictures- van gogh canvases are so distinctive, and news of the theft so universal, the buyer must be someone who has no need to display them to anybody but himself.....like thomas crown, of course.....