{"id":378695,"date":"2025-08-27T22:03:20","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:03:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378695\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T22:03:20","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T22:03:20","slug":"van-gogh-museum-threatens-to-close-doors-in-funding-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/378695\/","title":{"rendered":"Van Gogh museum threatens to close doors in funding row"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam faces closure unless the Dutch government provides extra cash to maintain the buildings that house its collection, according to its director.<\/p>\n

Vincent van Gogh, who was born in 1853 and died in 1890, painted some of the most acclaimed and highly valued works of art in the modern world and a 1962 agreement with the artist\u2019s nephew preserved the family\u2019s collection of his works for public display as long as the state paid for a museum building.<\/p>\n

Emilie Gordenker, 60, the museum\u2019s director, has now warned that unless the government increases funding by \u20ac2.5 million a year for renovation the collection will have to close its doors.<\/p>\n

\u2022 Judges draw line under village feud over Van Gogh\u2019s last painting<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cIf this situation persists, it will be dangerous for the art and dangerous for our visitors,\u201d she told The New York Times. \u201cThis is the last thing we want, but if it comes to that, we would have to close the building.\u201d<\/p>\n

After its opening in 1973, with modernist buildings designed by Gerrit Rietvelf and Kisho Kurokawa, the museum quickly became an international success, rivalling the Dutch national collection at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam<\/a> thanks to its collection of 200 Van Gogh paintings, including many of his most famous, as well as 500 drawings and his letters.<\/p>\n

The artist\u2019s popularity is such that the museum has restricted visitor numbers to 1.8 million from a peak of 2.25 million. It generates 85 per cent of its own income.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/p>\n

The Van Gogh Museum requires funding to cover its costs during an extended closure for renovations<\/p>\n

ALAMY<\/p>\n

When the artist died, a large portion of his art and collection remained within the family, including priceless masterpieces such as Almond Blossom, which was painted to hang over the cradle of his infant nephew Vincent Willem van Gogh.<\/p>\n

The nephew, who died in 1978, handed over the entire family collection, including masterpieces by van Gogh\u2019s contemporaries, to a newly formed public foundation. In return, the Dutch state committed itself to provide resources to house a museum.<\/p>\n

\"Van<\/p>\n

Almond blossom was painted for Van Gogh\u2019s nephew, who donated much of his collection to the Dutch state<\/p>\n

VAN GOGH MUSEUM<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Dutch state<\/a> must fulfil its legally established obligations,\u201d a statement from the Vincent van Gogh Foundation said. \u201cThe foundation is deeply concerned about the accessibility of the Van Gogh collection in light of the current funding issues.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2022 Van Gogh and the secret meanings of plants<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n

The museum has planned work and will use its financial reserves to cover \u20ac50 million in lost revenue during partial closures for the renovation.<\/p>\n

It is asking the Dutch government, which is embroiled in a crisis after the PVV, a hard-right party led by Geert Wilders, pulled out of the ruling coalition in June<\/a>, to increase its annual contributions to \u20ac11 million from \u20ac8.5 million to cover building costs and to meet fire safety and energy efficiency requirements.<\/p>\n

The Dutch culture ministry has said the institution should cover the costs itself, arguing it \u201creceives one of the highest subsidies per square metre of all national museums\u201d. \u201cThe subsidy is a fixed amount that is corrected for inflation on an annual basis,\u201d it said. \u201cThe subsidy is calculated according to a methodology which is used for all national museums.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam faces closure unless the Dutch government provides extra cash to maintain the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":378696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3939],"tags":[4021,4020,4022,77,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-378695","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-design","11":"tag-entertainment","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115102994169687624","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=378695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/378695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/378696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=378695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=378695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=378695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}