Cranach painting found! By Mollie

I’m sure we’ve all experienced some thefts at our congregations, but imagine if you lost your Cranach painting. A Lutheran church in Norway was robbed of a beautiful painting this week. But, it seems, it’s been recovered:

The painting, estimated by experts to be worth $2 million to $3 million, was stolen in the early hours of Sunday from a church at Larvik, south of Oslo.

Police inspector Magnar Pedersen told NRK television news the painting appeared to be undamaged except for the frame, but experts had not yet examined it.

Police detained a man in his 50s at his home in Larvik and found the painting stashed in a truck in a neighboring county, but they declined to give further details. Pedersen said more arrests could be made.

The painting, “Suffer the little children to come unto me,” shows Christ in a blue robe holding two infants in his lap and surrounded by several women with small children and a few men.

It had hung in the Larvik church since it was built in 1677.

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