The story of Van Gogh Museum

The Van Gogh Museum holds the largest collection of Vincent van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. When Vincent died in 1890, his unsold work passed to his brother Theo, who died six months later; Theo's widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger, organised exhibitions that did much to win him fame. The collection went to a state foundation in 1962, the government asked Gerrit Rietveld to design a museum in 1963, and it opened on 2 June 1973; in 1998–1999 a wing by the Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa was added.

In 2017 it had 2.3 million visitors, more than any other museum in the Netherlands. In 2013 it unveiled Sunset at Montmajour, a long-lost painting found in a Norwegian attic, which can be dated to 4 July 1888 from a letter to Theo. In 1991 twenty paintings, among them The Potato Eaters, were stolen, but all were found 35 minutes later in an abandoned car.

Look for The Potato Eaters.