René Alphonse van den Berghe (

Nivelles Nivelles (; ; ) is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the Belgian province of Walloon Brabant. The Nivelles municipality includes the former municipalities of Baulers, Bornival, Thines, and Monstreux. The Nivelles arrondissement ...

, 1940 – 19 June 2020), also known as Erik the Belgian (Erik el Belga) has been described by Spain’s Policía Nacional as "an art dealer, restorer, painter, writer and international thief". According to art crime researchers, he was one of the most prolific art thieves in Europe during the 20th century. Between 1977 and 1982, he has admitted to committing thirty robberies, though in likelihood, that number is likely higher. Burglarising primarily Spanish churches and monasteries, alone or with others, he is believed to have been responsible for the theft of thousands of religious artworks. Although Erik was imprisoned several times, ultimately in Spain for 37 months, the Spanish courts failed to convict him of any

art theft Art theft, sometimes called art napping, is the stealing of paintings, sculptures, or other forms of visual art from galleries, museums or other public and private locations. Stolen art is often resold or used by criminals as collateral to ...

. Van den Berghe was a self-proclaimed thief, stating: "I’m no small-time crook. I’m a high-class thief. I have stolen for the love of art and I have stolen luxury items. Money has no luxury value." On 7 November 1980 van den Berghe stole six Flemish tapestries from a church in the town of

Castrojeriz Castrojeriz or Castrogeriz is a locality and municipality located in the province of Burgos, in the autonomous community of Castile and León (Spain), the comarca of Odra-Pisuerga, the judicial district of Burgos, head of the town council of the ...

. These tapestries were made in

Bruges Bruges ( , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the province of West Flanders, in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is in the northwest of the country, and is the sixth most populous city in the country. The area of the whole city amoun ...

by Corneille Schutz in 1654. While the tapestries were recovered by an

Interpol The International Criminal Police Organization – INTERPOL (abbreviated as ICPO–INTERPOL), commonly known as Interpol ( , ; stylized in allcaps), is an international organization that facilitates worldwide police cooperation and crime cont ...

-led investigation, a section of the ''La apoteosis de las artes'' (The Apotheosis of the Arts) was only recently discovered in February 2022. The fragment was returned to the archdiocese of Burgos on 18 February 2022.

References

Belgian art dealers Belgian expatriates in Spain People from Nivelles Place of death missing 1940 births 2020 deaths {{Belgium-bio-stub