Van Gogh Museum
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Van Gogh Museum | |
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| Established | 1973 |
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| Location | Museumplein Amsterdam, Netherlands |
| Type | National museum |
| Visitor figures | 1,417,096 (2005) |
| Director | Axel Rüger |
| Website | www.vangoghmuseum.nl |
The Van Gogh Museum is a museum in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, featuring the works of the Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries. It has the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world.
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[edit] Main exhibition
The main exhibition chronicles the phases of Van Gogh's life, from his childhood to his various, crazy,emotional stages through his death. Highlights include The Potato Eaters, Bedroom in Arles and one of the three Sunflowers paintings with a yellow background.
The museum is located in Museumplein (Museum Square) in Amsterdam.[1]
[edit] The building
The main structure was designed by Gerrit Rietveld and opened in 1973. The architect of the Exhibition Wing was Kisho Kurokawa; it was completed in 1999.
[edit] Theft of paintings in the museum
On the night of 7 December 2002 two of Van Gogh's works were stolen from the museum: View of the Sea at Scheveningen (Zeegezicht bij Scheveningen) and Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen (Het uitgaan van de hervormde kerk te Nuenen).
On December 12, 2003, Octave Durham was arrested in Puerto Banus, Spain. Henk Bieslijn was arrested on an unspecified date in 2003 in Amsterdam. On April 8, 2005, Durham was sentenced to 4.5 years in prison, and Bieslijn was sentenced to 4 years. They were also ordered to pay €350,000 in damages. To date, the stolen paintings have not been recovered. Due to loopholes in Dutch law, both men may be able to claim ownership of the stolen works after 20 to 30 years.
[edit] References
[edit] External links
- Museum website
- Award winning site of the Van Gogh Gauguin Exhibition 2002
- The Vincent van Gogh Gallery, with pictures of all his paintings and drawings
- 'Monkey' held over Van Gogh theft
- Two men, convicted of stealing two paintings from the Van Gogh Museum, have been sentenced
- The Van Gogh Museum Robbery
- Amsterdam Tourist Attractions
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