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Agence France-Presse

The revolver with which Vincent van Gogh is believed to have shot himself is to go under the hammer on Wednesday at a Paris auction house.
Billed as “the most famous weapon in the history of art”, the 7mm Lefaucheux revolver is expected to fetch up to €60,000 (US$67,000).

Van Gogh experts say he shot himself with the revolver near the village of Auvers-sur-Oise north of Paris, where he spent the last few months of his life in 1890.
Discovered by a farmer in 1965 in the same field where the troubled Dutch painter is thought to have fatally wounded himself, the gun has been exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.
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While Art Auction, which is selling the gun, said there is no way of being absolutely certain it is the fatal weapon, tests showed it had been in the ground for 75 years, which would fit in with the date of his death.
The Dutch artist had borrowed a gun from the owner of the inn in the village where he was staying.
He died 36 hours later after staggering wounded back to the inn in the dark.

It was not his first dramatic act of self-harm. Two years earlier in 1888, he cut off his ear before offering it to a woman in a brothel in Arles in the south of France.
While most art historians agree Van Gogh killed himself, that assumption has been questioned in recent years, with some researchers claiming the fatal shot may have accidentally been fired by two boys playing with the weapon in the field.
That theory won fresh support from a new biopic of the artist starring Willem Dafoe, At Eternity’s Gate.
Its director, the renowned American painter Julian Schnabel, said Van Gogh painted 75 canvasses in his 80 days at Auvers-sur-Oise and was unlikely to be suicidal.


The legendary French screenwriter Jean-Claude Carriere – who co-wrote the script with Schnabel – insisted that there “is absolutely no proof” he killed himself.
“Do I believe that Van Gogh killed himself? Absolutely not!” he declared when the film was premiered at the Venice film festival last September.
He said Van Gogh painted some of his best work in his final days, including his Portrait of Dr Gachet, the local doctor who later tried to save his life.
It set a world record when it sold for US$82.5 million in 1990.

The bullet Dr Gachet extracted from Van Gogh’s chest was the same calibre as the one used by the Lefaucheux revolver.
“Van Gogh was working constantly. Every day he made a new work. He was not at all sad,” Carriere argued.
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In the film the gun goes off after the two young boys, who were brothers, got into a struggle with the bohemian stranger.
Auction Art said the farmer who found the gun in 1965 gave it to the owners of the inn at Auvers-sur-Oise, whose family are now selling it.

“Technical tests on the weapon have shown the weapon was used and indicate that it stayed in the ground for a period that would coincide with 1890,” it said. “All these clues give credence to the theory that this is the weapon used in the suicide.”
That did not exclude, the auction house added, that the gun could also have been hidden or abandoned by the two young brothers in the field.
The auction coincides with an immersive Van Gogh exhibition in the French capital which allows “the audience to enter his landscapes” through projections on the gallery’s walls, ceilings and floors.
“Van Gogh, Starry Night” runs at the Atelier des Lumieres in the east of the city until December.


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‘The most famous weapon in the history of art’: gun used to kill Vincent van Gogh to be auctioned

The gun believed to be used by painter Vincent van Gogh to shoot himself on July 27, 1890, on display at Drouot auction house in Paris on Friday. Photo: AFP

A revolver believed to be the gun Dutch 19th century painter Vincent Van Gogh would have used to kill himself on 27 July 1890 is on public display at Paris' Drouot auction house on June 19, 2019 before it goes under the hammer later today. - The gun was found in the field where the artist committed suicide in Auvers-sur-Oise by a farmer around 1960 and was handed to the current owner’s mother. (Photo by FRANCOIS GUILLOT / AFP)

Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

"Portrait du Dr. Gachet" sold for US$ 82.5 million at Christie auction House in New York, making it the world's most expensive painting (US $ 75 million adding the ten percent buyers premium and New york State sales tax). It as been bought by a Japanese art dealer. This easily surpasses the US$ 53.9 million price bid for Van Gogh's "Iris" in November 1987. AP PHOTO

The gun believed to be used by painter Vincent van Gogh to shoot himself on July 27, 1890, on display at Drouot auction house in Paris on Friday. Photo: Reuters

At Eternity’s Gate film review: Willem Dafoe mesmerises as Vincent van Gogh in conventional biopic

Mathieu Amalric as Dr. Paul Gachet in a still from At Eternity's Gate.

Willem Dafoe as Vincent van Gogh in a still from At Eternity’s Gate (category IIA, English, French), directed by Julian Schnabel.

The Trumps wanted a Van Gogh for the White House. The museum offered a US$1m golden toilet titled ‘America’

Maurizio Cattelan's “America”, is a solid gold, fully functioning toilet that was installed in the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in 2016. The museum's curator has offered it to the Trumps for use in the White House. Photo: Solomon R Guggenheim Foundation

The Trumps had hoped to get this 1888 painting by Vincent Van Gogh - "Landscape With Snow" - for their exclusive use. Image: Vincent Van Gogh; part of the Guggenheim collection

This image released by Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands, Thursday, March 11, 2010, shows a painting entitled "The Bedroom", by Vincent van Gogh. One of van Gogh's most famous paintings, "The Bedroom," has been taken away for restoration, but art lovers don't have to miss it. They can follow the clean up on a blog on the Van Gogh Museum's Web site. The 1888 painting of Van Gogh's room in the French city of Arles was one of the artist's favorite works. Museum spokeswoman Natalie Bos said some of the colors have faded. (AP Photo/Van Gogh Museum) ** NO SALES: EDITORIAL USE ONLY **

The canvas "Congregation Leaving The Reformed Church in Nuenen", one of the two recovered paintings by Vincent van Gogh which were stolen from the Van Gogh Museum in 2002, is pictured at the van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Netherlands March 21, 2017. REUTERS/Michael Kooren FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY. NO RESALES. NO ARCHIVE

U.S. President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump attend the 60th Annual Red Cross Gala at Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida, U.S., February 4, 2017. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

Loving Vincent: how Van Gogh’s life was subject of the world’s first animated film made of oil paint

Vincent Van Gogh is voiced by Robert Gulaczyk in Loving Vincent, an animated film in which each frame is a painting created in the style of the artist. Photo: Good Deed Entertainment

Adeline Ravoux (voice of Eleanor Tomlinson) folds napkins in a scene from "Loving Vincent." MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

The animated film "Loving Vincent" was created from approximately 65,000 oils-on-canvas, hand-painted in the style of Vincent Van Gogh. MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

"Loving Vincent" features characters from Vincent Van Gogh's paintings, such as Dr. Paul Gachet. MUST CREDIT: Good Deed Entertainment

A wall in the Gdansk studio where Loving Vincent was made.

Chris O'Dowd (left) and Douglas Booth on the set of Loving Vincent.

epa06255068 British director Hugh Welchman (R), British actress/cast member Helen McCrory (C) and British actor/cast member Douglas Booth pose at the 'Loving Vincent' film premiere during the 61st BFI London Film Festival, in London, Britain, 09 October 2017. The festival runs from 04 to 15 October. EPA-EFE/ANDY RAIN

Painters at work for the film Loving Vincent.

Expert tracks down missing Van Gogh 'Sunflowers' paintings

One of Van Gogh's "Sunflowers". Photo: SCMP

China’s Van Goghs film review: Shenzhen art counterfeiter profiled in surprisingly poignant documentary

This documentary follows a talented Chinese art forger, who claims to have painted 100,000 copies of Vincent van Gogh’s masterpieces, on a trip to Amsterdam, where he gets to see the originals and has an emotional epiphany

Painter Zhao Xiaoyong in a still from China's Van Goghs.

A still from the documentary film China's Van Goghs.

A still from China’s Van Goghs (category I, Mandarin), directed by Yu Haibo and Kiki Yu Tianqi.

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Mystery surrounds pistol found in 1965. Was it used by the artist to commit suicide in 1890, or did two boys playing with the weapon accidentally shoot him?


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‘The most famous weapon in the history of art’: gun used to kill Vincent van Gogh to be auctioned

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;}Mystery surrounds pistol found in 1965. Was it used by the artist to commit suicide in 1890, or did two boys playing with the weapon accidentally shoot him?

Mystery surrounds pistol found in 1965. Was it used by the artist to commit suicide in 1890, or did two boys playing with the weapon accidentally shoot him?