France jails Dutch man for church art thefts

LA HAVRE, France, April 14 (AFP) – A 37-year-old Dutchman has been sentenced to five years in a French prison for robbing churches of valuable religious artworks, judicial officials said Wednesday.

Albertus Krijnen was found guilty of a spate of thefts, including that in August 2000 of a 16th century painting of the Ascension of Christ from a church in northern France.

That painting proved Krijnen’s downfall because a member of the family which had donated it to the church recognised it at a Paris antique-sellers’ market.

Police traced its movements through the Netherlands, Belgium and finally back to Krijnen, who was arrested.