October 07, 2016 - 8:40 AM
AMSTERDAM - Five Dutch Golden Age paintings that were among a trove of art stolen from a Dutch museum more than a decade ago have been returned after being recovered in Ukraine earlier this year.
Now the Westfries Museum in the northern town of Hoorn is crowd-funding to pay to restore the paintings, which were badly damaged during or after the January 2005 burglary in which they were snatched.
Museum Director Ad Geerdink said Friday that the recovered paintings "have suffered incredibly."
Four of the paintings were recovered by Ukrainian officials. The museum says the fifth was handed to the Dutch embassy in Kyiv in May by a person who had bought it in good faith.
Another 19 paintings and 70 pieces of silver remain missing.
News from © The Associated Press, 2016