Art News

Van Gogh Experts Authenticate Unusual Painting Now on View at Museum de Fundatie

AMSTERDAM.- Today, the most recent painting to be authenticated as a genuine work of art created by Vincent Van Gogh, “Le Blute-Fin Mill”, was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in the central Dutch town of Zwolle, Amsterdam. The 19th century painting of a Paris mill was declared an original 25 years after the death of the man who bought it – Dirk Hannema. The painting’s owner Dirk Hannema, who was born in Batavia, Dutch East Indies in 1895, bought the piece in 1975 in Paris from an antique and art dealer for 5,000 Dutch guilders ($2,700), and then immediately insured it for 16 times more than what he paid. Hannema claimed that he was “absolutely certain” that the work of art was an original, but, because of an earlier claim of having bought a Vermeer in 1937 that was later proven to be a forgery, the buyer’s declarations were discredited and went disregarded.