An early painting by Vincent van Gogh that was stolen and handed to a Dutch art sleuth in an Ikea bag has been displayed for the first time since its headline-grabbing return. The 1884 Parsonage Garden at Nuenen in Spring, which is worth up to €6m (£5m), was unveiled to media at a Rotterdam museum with damage from the theft still visible. A deep white scratch can be seen at the bottom of the canvas. The painting’s restorer, Marjan de Visser, said: “I would call this a severe one because it goes through all the layers, the varnish, the paint layers and then into the ground layer, which is white. “Underneath is the original canvas, which is also a little bit damaged,” she added, saying the damage probably came from the painting bumping into something hard. De Visser said she was conducting a thorough investigation into the painting, examining the materials used, previous restorations and how it was mounted. “Without knowing, you can’t do anything, you can’t make a proposal for its conservation.” De Visser has already removed dirt from the painting and started taking off some of the varnish, preparatory steps for the restoration proper. The presentation on Wednesday was for members of the media, but the public will be able to view the painting from 29 March in Groninger Museum in the north of the Netherlands. The painting was stolen in a midnight heist in March 2020 during a Covid 19 lockdown from the Singer Laren Museum near Amsterdam, where it was on loan from Groningen. Video footage released by police showed a man smashing through a glass door in the middle of the night and running out with the painting tucked under his right arm. The whereabouts of the painting was unknown for three and a half years until it sensationally resurfaced in the possession of an art sleuth known as the “Indiana Jones of the art world”. A man, whose identity was not revealed for his own safety, handed the painting to Arthur Brand in a blue Ikea bag, covered with bubble wrap and stuffed inside a pillow case. The painting is from relatively early in Van Gogh’s career, before the prolific artist embarked on his trademark post-impressionist paintings of sunflowers and vivid self-portraits. De Visser said: “This is how the young Van Gogh painted, before he went to art academy in Antwerp.”