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Journalism of Courage
The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam — home to several of the Dutch post-impressionist’s most acclaimed works, including Sunflowers, The Potato Eaters, Irises, The Bedroom, Cornfield with Crows — has announced that it will be forced to close if the Dutch government does not fund its much-needed renovation, which it had planned to start in 2028, and was scheduled to continue for three years.
Noting how the maintenance work is unavoidable, in a press release issued, the museum stated, “The buildings are in poor condition, requiring substantial investments to keep them safe and suitable for public access. Most technical installations have reached the end of their operational lifespan, are conceptionally outdated, and increasingly difficult to maintain due to a lack of spare parts. As a result, ongoing maintenance is no longer feasible, and the systems must be replaced.”
The museum has approximated the total cost of the Masterplan 2028 to €104 million. “The museum is unable to finance Masterplan 2028, because the government has not provided sufficient subsidy for the Van Gogh Museum’s buildings and facilities,” added the release.
Revealing that since the museum opened in 1973, it has attracted almost 57 million visitors, with a highpoint of 2.6 million people in 2017 — a footfall that the building was not designed to accommodate — the release also cites a promise the Dutch government made to the artist’s heir, Engineer VW van Gogh.
“After Vincent van Gogh died, a large portion of his art and collection remained within the family. V.W Van Gogh and the Dutch government made an unprecedented agreement in order to prevent the collection from being dispersed. V.W van Gogh transferred ownership of the entire collection — over 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 900 letters, as well as artworks by Vincent’s contemporaries that were collected over the years — to the Vincent van Gogh Foundation, established specifically for this purpose… In return, the Dutch State committed itself to providing sufficient resources for the construction and maintenance of a new museum where the collection would be permanently preserved and displayed to the public.”
According to an article in The New York Times, “the museum has filed a legal complaint against the state that is likely to lead to a court hearing in the next several months”. It notes that the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science has stated, “The 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… the use of this methodology and its outcome for the Van Gogh Museum do not constitute a violation of the 1962 agreement.”
