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Wednesday, April 24, 2024 | Back issues
Courthouse News Service Courthouse News Service

Gun Possibly Used by Van Gogh to Kill Himself Up for Auction

A Paris auction house says it's selling a revolver that was possibly used by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh to take his own life.

PARIS (AP) — A Paris auction house says it's selling a revolver that was possibly used by Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh to take his own life.

Described by some as the art world's most famous weapon, the 7mm pocket revolver will be put up for sale by Auction Art on June 19.

The handgun was discovered in the 1960s in fields in the northern French village of Auvers-sur-Oise, where Van Gogh is widely believed to have shot himself in the chest in 1890. He died two days later.

A book by Pulitzer-Prize winning authors has questioned that version of the painter's death, concluding that Van Gogh was shot by two teenagers.

The revolver going under the hammer in Paris was part of a 2016 exhibition at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Categories / Arts, Entertainment

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