A Vincent Van Gogh drawing stolen from a Santa Fe home in May was recovered Thursday from a consignment shop in Raton, where it was on sale for $250, police said.

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The Van Gogh drawing was a sketch for the artist’s later painting, The Night Café. The black-and-white drawing looks exactly like the finished painting, except the drawing doesn’t have Van Gogh’s signature, the owner told The New Mexicanin August.

Police estimated the drawing was worth about $200,000 in August, though the owner said that number was far below the work’s value and “not even remotely accurate.”

The owner said his great-grandfather originally bought the drawing and that it had been in his family for three generations.

I find this particularly interesting due to the theme of value. Vincent’s work has become a commodity, objects especially worthy of robbery followed by a quiet, under-priced resale out of sheer desperation during the months of a recession.

I think of the value this little drawing had for you when you made it; it was a study most likely never meant to be sold.

I think of the value for the owner – who claims $200,000 is not even remotely accurate (because it is “a Van Gogh”? because it was a family heirloom? because of the owner’s personal associations with the drawing? And then, how do we put a price on these things:  on fame, on the past, on emotions?)

I think of the fact that it was treasured and passed down three generations. I think of how you are valuable now, so unlike how you and everything you made were treated during your life.

In March 2009, I did my first research trip. I realized that there were plenty of Vincent’s paintings in the US if one just knew where to look. And so I visited the Yale University Art Gallery (New Haven, CT), the Museum of Art (Providence, RI), the Boston Museum of Fine Arts (Boston, MA), the Sterling and Francine Clark Art Institute (Williamstown, MA), and the Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art (Hartford, CT). It took me on a loop shaped pretty much exactly like in the map above.

I had an amazing time on this trip, got a lot of writing done, and took a good amount of pictures. Click on the photo below if you are interested in seeing the rest – most are of the paintings themselves. All in all I saw eight paintings, none I had ever seen before.

In particular, I encourage you to take a look because I set off at least one alarm while taking them… and it was worth it!

I also took several videos along the way… I’ll put a few here. I hope you enjoy them.

My other videos taken during the Yellow Roadtrip may be seen here.

Today’s quote: But I cannot help thinking that the best way of knowing God is to love many things. Love this friend, this person, this thing, whatever you like, and you will be on the right road to understanding Him better, that is what I keep telling myself. But you must love with a sublime, genuine, profound sympathy, with devotion, with intelligence, and you must try all the time to understand Him more, better and yet more. (July 1880 to Theo)

My thoughts? I couldn’t agree more, and I’ve always tried to live this way. It’s fascinating to me that Vincent is the only one who makes sense to me when talking about God…

Also, how are you such an incredible writer, Vincent? It boggles my mind.