Arthur Brand (investigator)

Arthur Brand (born 1969 (age 54)) is a Dutch art crime investigator who has recovered over 200 works of art. His vocation is being an art historian and art consultant. It is for the love of art that he takes on lost art recovery as a personal interest.

Brand's interest in stolen art recovery began when he was an exchange student in southern Spain. Together with some Romani people he met there, he went on a treasure hunt that resulted in the discovery of three silver Roman coins. He was inspired by that journey to begin conducting detective work on his own. He conducted research through newspapers to learn about stolen works of art.

Amongst other works, he tracked down a 1600-year-old missing mosaic, and a Byzantine-era depiction of St. Mark that was stolen four decades previously. He also helped recover Salvador Dalí’s "Adolescence", during which CBS quoted that "He's described as the Indiana Jones of the art world". Other recovered works include Tamara de Lempicka's The Musician. Brand was involved in the pursuit of several paintings that were stolen from the Dutch city of Hoorn. He retrieved Oscar Wilde's ring, returned to Oxford University's Magdalen College, Picasso's Buste de Femme and Van Gogh's The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in September 2023. Six paintings stolen from the town hall of Medemblik in September 2023 were delivered anonymously to Brand's door in October 2023.

He has written two books about his recoveries (Hitler's Horses and Het verboden Judas-evangelie en de schat van Carchemish) and there is a Dutch documentary series about his recoveries: De Kunstdetective. A third book, De kunstdetective has been announced for publication by Boekerij in June 2024.

Selected publications

 * English edition, translated by Jane Hedley-Prôle:
 * English edition, translated by Jane Hedley-Prôle: