Arthur Brand recovered stolen documents from the 15th to 19th century, including Unesco-listed Dutch East India Company archives. Photo / AFP
Arthur Brand recovered stolen documents from the 15th to 19th century, including Unesco-listed Dutch East India Company archives. Photo / AFP
A Dutch art sleuth has recovered a priceless trove of stolen documents from the 15th to the 19th century, including several Unesco-listed archives from the world’s first multinational corporation.
Arthur Brand, nicknamed the “Indiana Jones of the Art World” for his high-profile recovery of stolen masterpieces, said the latest discoverywas among his most significant.
“In my career, I have been able to return fantastic stolen art, from Picassos to a Van Gogh ... yet this find is one of the highlights of my career,” Brand told AFP.
Many of the documents recount the early days of the Dutch East India Company (VOC). Its globetrotting trading and military operations contributed to the Dutch “Golden Age”, when the Netherlands was a global superpower.
The 17th century VOC documents contain a “fascinating glimpse into the events of that time in places like Europe, India, Indonesia, South Africa and Latin America,” Brand said.
One document from 1602 recounts the first meeting of the VOC, during which its famous logo – considered the world’s first corporate logo – was designed.
The documents provide insights into the Dutch 'Golden Age' and global operations of the company. Photo / AFP
VOC merchants criss-crossed the globe, catapulting the Netherlands to a world trading power but also exploiting and oppressing the colonies it conquered.
The company was also a leading diplomatic power and one document relates a visit in 1700 by top VOC officials to the court of the Mughal emperor in India.
“Since the Netherlands was one of the most powerful players in the world at that time in terms of military, trade, shipping, and colonies, these documents are part of world history,” Brand said.
Unesco agrees, designating the VOC archives as part of its “Memory of the World” documentary heritage collection.
“The VOC archives make up the most complete and extensive source on early modern world history anywhere,” says Unesco on its website.
The trove also featured early ship’s logs from one of the world’s most famous admirals, Michiel de Ruyter, whose exploits are studied in naval academies even today.
De Ruyter gained fame for his daring 1667 raid to attack the English fleet in the River Medway, one of the greatest humiliations in world naval history.
The ship’s logs, written in his own hand, relate the admiral’s first experience of naval warfare, the 1641 Battle of St Vincent against the Spanish fleet.
No less enthralling is the “who-dunnit” of how Brand came by the documents.
Brand received an email from someone who had stumbled across a box of seemingly ancient manuscripts while clearing out the attic of an incapacitated family member.
This family member occasionally lent money to a friend, who would leave something as collateral – in this case the box of documents.
“I received some photos and couldn’t believe my eyes. This was indeed an extraordinary treasure,” Brand told AFP.
