{"id":27624,"date":"2025-08-28T00:20:09","date_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:20:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/27624\/"},"modified":"2025-08-28T00:20:09","modified_gmt":"2025-08-28T00:20:09","slug":"van-gogh-museum-threatens-dutch-government-with-closure","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/27624\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh Museum Threatens Dutch Government with Closure"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Van Gogh Museum<\/a>, the beloved Amsterdam home to many masterpieces by one of the 19th century\u2019s most famous painters, said it could be forced to close if the Dutch government doesn\u2019t appropriate more money to a much-needed renovation.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe museum threatened closure on Wednesday via press release<\/a>, an unusual measure that the institution said was necessary because the government is \u201cnot keeping the promise\u201d it inked with the Vincent van Gogh<\/a> Foundation in 1962. The foundation owns most of the artworks on view at the museum, including iconic paintings such as The Potato Eaters (1885).<\/p>\n

\t\tRelated Articles<\/p>\n

\t\t\t\t\t\t\"FRANCE<\/p>\n

\n\tSigned after the artist\u2019s descendants agreed to hand over hundreds of works to the newly created foundation, the 1962 agreement states that the Dutch state must continue to fund the construction and upkeep of the Van Gogh Museum. But the museum alleges that the country\u2019s government has not committed enough funding the institution, which has filed a legal complaint about the matter, according to the New York Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tThe Times report stated that the museum currently receives around $10 million from the government annually\u2014and it now needs around $2.9 million more per year to support costs related to climate control, elevators, and building infrastructure.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn its release, the museum described its building as being in \u201cpoor condition.\u201d \u201cMost technical installations have reached the end of their operational lifespan, are conceptionally outdated and increasingly difficult to maintain due to a lack of spare parts,\u201d the museum said. \u201cAs a result, ongoing maintenance is no longer\u00a0feasible and the systems must be replaced.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tTo remedy the issue, the museum is undertaking Masterplan 2028, a $120.6 million project that would see the institution partially close to the public and begin necessary maintenance work. The museum said it needed the expanded government funding in part to offset an anticipated decline in ticket sales.<\/p>\n

\n\tSafety is an issue, too. \u201cIf this situation persists, it will be dangerous for the art and dangerous for our visitors,\u201d Emilie Gordenker, the museum\u2019s director, told the Times.<\/p>\n

\n\tResponding to the plea for additional funding, the Dutch culture ministry told the Times, \u201cThe subsidy for the housing of the Van Gogh Museum is a fixed amount that is corrected for inflation on an annual basis. The subsidy is calculated according to a methodology which is used for all national museums.\u201d Moreover, the culture ministry said, the \u201cVan Gogh Museum receives one of the highest subsidies per square meter of all national museums.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tThe situation appeared to upset the Van Gogh Foundation, which said in a statement, \u201cThe Vincent\u00a0van\u00a0Gogh\u00a0Foundation is deeply concerned about the accessibility of the\u00a0Van\u00a0Gogh\u00a0collection in light of the current funding issues surrounding necessary investments in the\u00a0Van\u00a0Gogh Museum\u2019s buildings and facilities.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Van Gogh Museum, the beloved Amsterdam home to many masterpieces by one of the 19th century\u2019s most…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27625,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[267],"tags":[365,362,363,364,366,18,117,19,17,22389,587],"class_list":{"0":"post-27624","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-arts-and-design","8":"tag-arts","9":"tag-arts-and-design","10":"tag-artsanddesign","11":"tag-artsdesign","12":"tag-design","13":"tag-eire","14":"tag-entertainment","15":"tag-ie","16":"tag-ireland","17":"tag-van-gogh-museum","18":"tag-vincent-van-gogh"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27624","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27624"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27624\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27625"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27624"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27624"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27624"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}