Aussie canvas not Van Gogh after all

The painting, 8220;Head of a Man,8221; was brought to Australia in 1939 as part of an exhibit by Keith Murdoch, father of media mogul Rupert Murdoch. The piece became stranded in Australia with the outbreak of World War II, and the gallery bought it in 1940 for around 3,500. 8220;It was purchased as a Van Gogh work, and had been accepted as a Van Gogh for more than a decade before the gallery8217;s purchase,8221; Vaughan said.

He stressed the painting had simply been misattributed to Van Gogh. 8220;It is very important to make the point that it8217;s not a forgery,8221; he told reporters. 8220;There is no evidence to suggest that someone produced this picture to pass it off as a work by Van Gogh.8221;

The painting8217;s authenticity was first called into question last August when it was on show at the Dean Gallery in Edinburgh. Critics said the work, dated 1886, was of a different style to other Van Gogh paintings of the same period.

When the exhibit closed, the National Gallery of Victoria sent the painting to the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam for verification.

As a Van Gogh, the Australian painting had been valued at around 21 million.