AMSTERDAM, April 14— In one of the largest but shortest-lived art thefts on record, gunmen took 20 major paintings from the Vincent Van Gogh National Museum here before dawn today but inexplicably abandoned them in their getaway car 35 minutes later at a nearby railroad station.
The paintings, all by the Dutch genius who died a suicide in France 101 years ago, had been carefully selected from the walls of the building devoted to his work in Amsterdam's museum complex. The booty included one of his earliest finished paintings, the final version of "The Potato Eaters" completed in his hometown, Nuenen, in 1885, and one of his last, the nightmarish "Wheatfield With Crows" completed in Auvers-sur-Oise in July 1890, the month of his suicide. 3 Works Badly Torn
Ronald de Leeuw, the director of the museum, said that three of the recovered paintings had been severely torn when they were stuffed into the garment bags the thieves used to carry the works away. They were "Wheatfield With Crows," "Still Life With Bible," a dark work also done in Neunen in 1885; and "Still Life With Fruit," with a painted frame, done in Paris in 1887. Experts were examining the canvases to see about repairs, but authorities at the museum said that works with more serious damage had been successfully restored in the past.
The thieves appeared in the museum about 3 A.M. local time, apparently having concealed themselves when it closed on Saturday at 5 P.M. Brandishing pistols and wearing ski masks, they forced the guards to turn off the infrared-sensing alarm system, which can detect movement in a room, and other protective systems.
The guards said the two men spoke in American-accented English. Most people in Amsterdam use English as a second language and are aware of its subtleties.
The guards said the thieves spent 45 minutes selecting the paintings they took. The museum is in a modern four-story building opened in 1973. There are paintings on the first three floors and drawings on the fourth. The museum, formed around the collection of Vincent's brother Theo, has about 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 600 letters by van Gogh. In all, van Gogh is believed to have produced about 1,000 paintings and at least 1,000 drawings between 1884, when he became a serious artist, and 1890, when he died at the age of 37.
Some of the paintings in Amsterdam are from van Gogh's gloomy Dutch period, when he used a palette heavy in browns and grays and concentrated on the travails of the poor. It was not until he moved to France in February 1886 that van Gogh began painting in the vibrant style that brings big prices in the auction rooms.
The thieves made their selection mostly from among van Gogh's more valuable later works. Among those stuffed in the garment bags were a self-portrait, a view of his room in the asylum in St.-Remy, and versions of his sunflower and iris still lifes.
The thieves escaped with the two expandable garment bags in a Volkswagen Passat. One minute afterward, at 4:48 A.M., the guards gave the alarm to the police. The car, with the paintings still in the garment bags in the back, was found at 5:23 A.M. at the Amstel train station. The station is a secondary stop within the Amsterdam city limits. A Generous Brother
Mr. de Leeuw said that all the paintings had been scratched by the rough handling, but that only the three were in serious condition. Although van Gogh lived in poverty, his brother, an art dealer, provided him with the best materials and his paintings have generally survived the years very well.
The paintings were not covered by insurance because of increased premiums impelled by a rash of thefts. The state museums have thought it was thriftier to spend the money on tightened security.
There have been three thefts of van Goghs in the Netherlands in the last three years.
In December 1988, thieves took three paintings, including an earlier version of "The Potato Eaters," from the Kroller-Muller National Museum in Otterlo. The paintings were recovered by the police in a raid after the thieves tried to obtain ransom. Some Other Major Thefts
In May 1988, three works including an Gogh's "Carnations" were stolen from the Stedelijk Museum, which is next door to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam. The paintings were also recovered in an undercover operation. Last June thieves profited from a broken alarm system to enter the provincial Noordbrabants Museum in Den Bosch and stole three early van Gogh paintings. They have not been recovered.
Museum authorities declined to put a value on today's haul but a police spokesman said the stolen artworks were worth "hundreds of millions" of dollars. Among recent auction prices, van Gogh's "Portrait of Dr. Gachet," done in the last months of his life, was sold at auction in New York to a Japanese collector for $82.5 last year. In 1987, one of the "Irises" canvases sold for $53.9 million and a version of "Sunflowers" sold for $20.3 million.
In what experts have called the biggest art theft, thieves broke into the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum in Boston in March 1990 and stole 12 artworks, including a Vermeer, a Manet, 3 Rembrandts and 5 by Degas and estimated at the time to be worth $200 million. There have been no reports of any recovery.
Photos: Detail of "The Potato Eaters," one of the paintings stolen. (pg. A1); "Wheatfield With Crows," one of van Gogh's last works, was completed the month of his suicide in 1890.; Police in Amsterdam inspecting a car in which 20 stolen van Gogh paintings were found in a railroad yard near the Van Gogh Museum. (Agence France-Presse) (pg. C12)
