DETROIT — Cheryle Van Wert said she can't fathom how a $5 million Vincent van Gogh painting could have disappeared for six years before turning up at the Detroit Institute of Arts — but she said she drove 100 miles Sunday from Saginaw to the museum to see for herself the artwork that's the subject of a federal lawsuit.
"I thought it was wonderful," Van Wert said of Vincent Van Gogh's, "Liseuse De Romans" — also known as "The Novel Reader" or "The Reading Lady" ― an 1888 oil painting by the Dutch Post-Impressionist master. "But how do you just lose a painting like that? Someone stole it and it stayed gone all this time? Why all of a sudden did this all come up?"
On Sunday, the DIA was packed with visitors to the Van Gogh exhibit. A line made up of hundreds of museum-goers seeking entry into the exhibit snaked through several wings of the DIA. At the end of the queue were sisters Kim and Kristyn Adams of Dearborn.
