24幅荷蘭失竊油畫在烏克蘭露面
HOORN, The Netherlands — On a wintry night in January 2005, an art thief slipped into the Westfries Museum here, the authorities believe, and hid beneath drapery on a 17th-century coffin as the doors were locked for the night.
荷蘭霍倫——2005年一月的一個寒夜，一個藝術品竊賊溜進西弗蘭裏博物館(Westfries Museum)，官方認爲，夜間閉館時，他就躲在一口17世紀棺材的蓋毯之下。
After disabling the alarm system, the theory goes, the thief allowed at least one collaborator into the small museum, which houses works from the Dutch Golden Age. When the Westfries opened the next morning, 24 paintings worth a total of about 1.3 million euros, about $1.44 million, along with 70 pieces of antique silver, were gone, leaving only frames hanging on the gallery walls.
警方推斷，這個竊賊弄壞了警報系統，讓至少一個同夥溜進了這座儲存着荷蘭黃金時代藝術品的小博物館。西弗蘭裏博物館翌日開門之時，發現有價值130萬歐元（約合144萬美元）的24幅油畫失竊，此外還有70件古董銀器也不見蹤影，畫廊裏只剩下空蕩蕩的畫框。
For a decade, the whereabouts of the stolen works remained a mystery, and the assumption was that they had disappeared into the murky world of international art theft.
十年來，這些失竊藝術品都下落不明，人們認爲，它們已經進入國際盜竊藝術品市場的污濁世界。
Then, this summer, representatives of an ultranationalist militia in Ukraine contacted the Dutch Embassy in Kiev, saying the group had discovered the art in a villa near Donetsk that had belonged to the government of the deposed president Viktor F. Yanukovych and was prepared to return it.
今年夏天，烏克蘭一個極端民族主義的民兵組織派代表聯繫位於基輔的荷蘭大使館，說他們在頓涅茨克附近的一個鄉間莊園發現了這些藝術品，藝術品原本屬於被罷黜的總統維克托·F·亞努科維奇(Viktor F. Yanukovych)的政府，這個民兵組織打算歸還它。
“They said that as a good gesture, we want to hand over the paintings,” Ad Geerdink, the director of the Westfries Museum, which went public with the case last week in an effort to recover the works before they could be sold on the black market, said on Saturday, “but since we risked our lives to save the paintings, we expect something in return. And that something, of course, was money.”
“他們說這是一個善意的姿態，他們希望移交這些油畫，”西弗蘭裏博物館館長埃德·格爾丁克(Ad Geerdink)在星期六說，上星期他公開談及此案，力圖在這些藝術品被賣入黑市之前收回它們，“但他們冒着危險拯救了這些油畫，所以想要點回報，這個回報，當然就是錢。”
The museum hired Arthur Brand, a Dutch art crime investigator, to go to Ukraine to negotiate with the militia, the Battalion of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. “I told them to be careful,” Mr. Brand said in a telephone interview on Monday, “because, although they said they would be willing to give the work back, they were talking about a finder’s fee, and they had estimated that the work was worth 50 million. I guessed already that they’d ask for 10 percent.”
博物館僱傭了荷蘭藝術犯罪調查者阿瑟·布蘭德(Arthur Brand)去往烏克蘭，同這個名爲“烏克蘭民族主義組織軍團”的民兵組織談判。“我告訴他們要當心，”星期一，布蘭德在接受電話採訪時說，“因爲儘管他們聲稱願意歸還這些作品，但他們要求收取尋回者的報酬，他們估計這些作品價值5000萬歐元，我覺得他們會索要這筆估價的10%作爲報酬。”
On Aug. 7, Mr. Brand said, he and representatives from the Dutch Embassy met with Borys Humeniuk, the deputy commander of the battalion, in Kiev and presented him with documentation that estimated the value of the works at 500,000, on the assumption that they were now in bad condition after almost a decade on the black market, and offered him a fee of 50,000.
布蘭德說，8月7日，他同荷蘭大使館的代表在基輔會見了該組織的副總指揮官鮑里斯·休莫尼烏克(Borys Humeniuk)，向後者提供文件，證明那些藝術品的估價在50萬美元（建立在這些藝術品在黑市上流傳了將近十年，保養狀況不佳的估計之上），並提出支付報酬五萬歐元。
After hearing that offer, Mr. Humeniuk no longer seemed so willing to return the paintings and the silver, he said.
布蘭德說，休莫尼烏克聽到這個建議，就顯得不太願意歸還油畫和銀器了。
“Borys repeated two times, ‘My soldiers will not accept this’ and he said, ‘the people who sent me will not accept 50,000,”’ Mr. Brand said. “Then the meeting was over and he said, ‘I will do my best to negotiate with my people.’ Then we waited.”
“鮑里斯連說了兩遍，‘我的士兵們不會接受的，’他還說，‘把這些畫給我的人們不會接受五萬歐元，’”布蘭德說。“會議結束後，他說，‘我會盡最大努力和我的人談判。’然後我們就等着。”
In early September, the Westfries Museum officials contacted the Ukrainian authorities, Mr. Geerdink said. Months passed without any progress in the case, he said.
9月初，西弗蘭裏博物館的官員們開始與烏克蘭官方聯繫，格爾丁克說，之後幾個月毫無進展。
During that time, Mr. Brand said, he received information that the art was being offered for sale to other parties.
布蘭德說，在這段時間裏，他收到消息，這批藝術品已經開始向其他人士出售。
“We hear from our informants that they first offered to other groups 24 paintings, and then we heard about 16, and then we heard about 12,” he said. “That was a strong indication that they were succeeding in selling at least some of the paintings. That was a strong motivation for us to go to the press.”
“我們從自己的消息提供者那裏得知，他們先是向其他團體出售24幅油畫，接着我們又聽說他們要賣16幅，後來又聽說要賣12幅，”他說。“這個跡象強烈表明，他們已經至少成功地賣出了一些畫作。這是我們向媒體公開此事的強烈動機之一。”
Mr. Geerdink said: “We felt it was now or never. If we don’t act, the work will be sold and we’ll never get it back.”
格爾丁克說：“我們覺得現在是唯一的機會。如果我們無所作爲，這些作品就會被賣掉，我們就永遠不可能收回它們了。”
“We want potential buyers to know that it’s stolen art,” he added, “and we want to motivate the Ukrainian officials, because they say they will do something, but they never tell us what they do.”
“我們希望潛在買家知道，它們是被盜竊的藝術品，”他補充說，“我們想刺激一下烏克蘭官員的積極性，因爲他們說，他們會做點什麼，但從來不告訴我們他們到底做了什麼。”
The stolen works are by relatively unknown Dutch Golden Age painters, including Jan van Goyen, Jan Linsen and Jacob Waben. “When you look at it from an international or national perspective, the paintings weren’t Rembrandts, Jan Steen or Vermeer; they were the category below,” Mr. Geerdink said. “When you look at it on a regional or local scale, they’re invaluable, because there aren’t similar paintings. These are landscapes or cityscapes and marine paintings that are so important for the story that we as a museum tell about the Golden Age of this area.”
這些失竊的藝術品都是來自不知名的荷蘭黃金時代畫家，包括楊·凡·格因(Jan van Goyen)、楊·林森(Jan Linsen)和雅克布·瓦本(Jacob Waben)。“如果以國際或國家的角度來看，這些畫並不是倫勃朗(Rembrandts)、楊·斯迪恩(Jan Steen)或維梅爾(Vermeer)的作品，它們是次一等級的作品，”格林丁克說。“但如果從地區或地域的角度來看，它們是無價之寶，因爲並不是大同小異的油畫，其中有自然景觀、城市景觀和海景，我們的博物館想要講述這一地區在黃金時代的故事，這些畫在這個故事中非常重要。”
The money to recover the paintings was to be provided by the municipality of Hoorn, since the Westfries museum itself has an annual operating budget of just ㄠ80,000 and an annual acquisitions budget of ㄠ1,000.
贖回這批畫作的錢將由霍倫自治市提供，因爲西弗蘭裏博物館的年度運營資金只有18萬歐元，每年的收購資金只有1.1萬歐元。
Museum officials and investigators involved in the case said that the works were probably not stolen by Ukrainians — the best guess at this point is that Dutch thieves were involved — and that they have probably changed hands a number of times in the past decade.
博物館官員和相關調查者說，這些作品很可能不是烏克蘭人偷的，最有可能的是同荷蘭本土竊賊有關，之後，這些作品可能在過去十年裏經歷了一系列易手。
How they ended up in Ukraine is a matter of conjecture. Mr. Geerdink said the first indication that they might be there surfaced in 2014, when a Dutch police detective discovered a color image of one of the missing art works, “Rebecca and Eliezer,” by Linsen, on a Ukrainian website.
最後它們是如何來到烏克蘭，仍然是個不確定的推測。格爾丁克說，可能在烏克蘭的跡象於2004年首次浮出水面，當時荷蘭警方在一個烏克蘭網站發現一張彩色照片，上面是一張遺失的油畫——林森的《麗貝卡與艾麗澤》(Rebecca and Eliezer)。
In response to the Westfries’ effort to publicize the case, the Ukrainian national police chief, Khatia Dekanoidze, said she was waiting for an official request from the Dutch prosecutor general’s office to begin to coordinate an investigation.
爲了對西弗蘭裏博物館將此事公之於衆做出迴應，烏克蘭國家警察局局長卡蒂婭·德卡諾伊茲(Khatia Dekanoidze)說，她正在等待荷蘭檢察長辦公室協助調查的請求。
“Our doors are open, we’re transparent and I hope that any kind of delegation from the state of Netherlands can arrive here,” she said in a videotaped statement on Friday.
“我們的大門是敞開的，我們是透明的，我希望任何來自荷蘭的委託都可以送達這裏，”她於週五在一份錄像聲明中說。
Olexander Horin, the Ukrainian ambassador to the Netherlands, criticized the museum and the Dutch authorities for meeting with Mr. Humeniuk without first contacting Ukrainian authorities.
烏克蘭駐荷蘭大使奧列克山大·霍林(Olexander Horin)批評這家博物館及荷蘭官方，未事先與烏克蘭當局聯繫就同休莫尼烏克會面。
“We consider these talks, frankly speaking, inappropriate,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday. “This is a very sensitive issue and if you choose to go ahead and do this yourself, you have to bear the responsibility for the result. It’s like a kidnapping case, when the goals of the investigators and the parents are completely different.”
“坦率地說，我們認爲這些會談是不正當的，”他於週一在接受電話採訪時說。“這是一個非常敏感的問題，如果你想自己處理，就得爲後果承擔責任。這有點像綁架案，調查者和父母的目標是不完全一致的。”
At this point, Mr. Horin said, the Ukrainian government is taking several steps, “first to locate the paintings, second to apprehend them, if these are the paintings they’re looking for, and the third and next step is the transfer of these paintings to the Dutch parties.”
霍林說，目前烏克蘭政府正在採取若干步驟，“首先是給爲油畫進行地理定位，其次是抓獲它們，如果這些油畫是他們要找的，那麼第三步以及接下來的步驟就是把這些畫歸還給荷蘭。”
Ahmed Dadou, press secretary to the Dutch minister of foreign affairs, Bert Koenders, said on Monday in a telephone interview: “We are in close contact with the Ukrainians on the proceedings in this case, and the Ukrainians have assured us that they would investigate the case.”
荷蘭外交部部長伯特·科恩達斯(Bert Koenders)的媒體祕書阿梅德·達杜(Ahmed Dadou)週一在接受電話採訪時說：“在處理這一事件中，我們已經同烏克蘭人密切合作，烏克蘭方面向我們保證會調查此案。”
In the meantime, the Westfries Museum has re-hung many of the empty frames of the paintings in the museum’s upstairs galleries.
與此同時，西弗蘭裏博物館在博物館樓上的畫廊裏重新掛上了那些空蕩蕩的畫框。
“Our fear is that maybe at this moment some of the paintings have already been sold,” Mr. Geerdink said. “We hung up the empty frames in the museum as a sign of protest and also as a sign of hope that within a year we’ll be able to recover them.”
“我們的擔心是，目前已經有些油畫被賣出去了，”格爾丁克說。“我們掛上空畫框，既是爲了表示抗議，也是希望一年之內我們能夠贖回它們。”
