Stolen Van Gogh paintings return to Amsterdam after 14 years

The paintings, the 1882 "View of the Sea at Scheveningen," and 1884-85 work "Congregation leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen," were discovered last year by Italian police investigating suspected Italian mobsters for cocaine trafficking.

The two paintings were wrapped in cotton sheets, stuffed in a box and hidden behind a wall in a toilet, said Gen. Gianluigi D'Alfonso of the Italian financial police, who was on hand at the museum for the ceremonial unveiling.

The paintings were found in a farmhouse near Naples as Italian police seized 20 million euros ($21.6 million) worth of assets, including villas, apartments and even a small airplane.

"After years shrouded in darkness, they can now shine again," said Jet Bussemaker, the Dutch minister for education, culture and science said as an orange screen slid away to reveal the two paintings behind a glass wall.

The Scheveningen seascape, with a fishing boat and rough sea under a typically gray, cloudy Dutch sky, is one of Van Gogh's earliest works.