The museum contains the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. In 2017, the museum had 2.3 million visitors and was themost-visited museum in the Netherlands, and the23rd-most-visited art museum in the world. In 2019, the Van Gogh Museum launched theMeet Vincent Van Gogh Experience, a technology-driven "immersive exhibition" on Van Gogh's life and works, which has toured globally.
UponVincent van Gogh's death in 1890, his work not sold fell into the possession of his brotherTheo. Theo died six months after Vincent, leaving the work in the possession of his widow,Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.[8] Selling many of Vincent's paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained aprivate collection of his works. The collection was inherited by her son Vincent Willem van Gogh in 1925, eventually loaned to theStedelijk Museum inAmsterdam, where it was displayed for many years, and was transferred to the state-initiated Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1962.[8]In the years following her husband’s death,Johanna van Gogh-Bonger organized exhibitions ofVincent van Gogh's work in theNetherlands and abroad, significantly contributing to his posthumous recognition.
Design for a Van Gogh Museum was commissioned by the Dutch government in 1963 to Dutch architect and furniture designerGerrit Rietveld.[9] Rietveld died a year later, and the building was not completed until 1973,[10] when the museum opened its doors.[11] In 1998 and 1999, the building was renovated by the Dutch architect Martien van Goor,[12] and an exhibition wing by the Japanese architectKisho Kurokawa was added.[13] A renovation of the museum building was announced in 2011.[14][15] The museum shuttered for renovations in September 2012,[16] reopening in May 2013.[17][18] During this period, 75 works from the collection were shown in theH'ART Museum.[19]
On 9 September 2013, the museum unveiled a long-lost Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic believed to be by another painter. It is the first full-size canvas by him discovered since 1928.Sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because he described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day 4 July 1888.[20]
By the 2020s, the Van Gogh Museum was planning to renovate its building for €104 million.[21] In August 2025, the museum warned that it might be forced to close unless the Dutch government increased its annual subsidy to the museum from €8.5 million to €11 million; the increased subsidy would fund part of the renovation.[22]
In 1991, twenty paintings were stolen from the museum, among them Van Gogh's early paintingThe Potato Eaters. Although the thieves escaped from the building, 35 minutes later all stolen paintings were recovered from an abandoned car. Three paintings –Wheatfield with Crows,Still Life with Bible, andStill Life with Fruit – were severely torn during the theft.[23] Four men, including two museum guards, were convicted for the theft and given six or seven-year sentences.[24] It is considered to be the largestart theft in the Netherlands since theSecond World War.[25]
In 2002, two paintings were stolen from the museum,Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen andView of the Sea at Scheveningen.[26] Two Dutchmen were convicted for the theft to four-and-a-half-year sentences, but the paintings were not immediately recovered.[27][28] The museum offered a reward of €100,000 for information leading to the recovery of the paintings.[29] TheFBI Art Crime Team listed the robbery on theirTop Ten Art Crimes list, and estimates the combined value of the paintings at US$30million.[30] In September 2016, both paintings were discovered by theGuardia di Finanza inCastellammare di Stabia,Italy in a villa belonging to theCamorra drug traffickerRaffaele Imperiale.[31] The two artworks were found in a "relatively good state", according to the Van Gogh Museum.[32]
The museum is situated at theMuseumplein inAmsterdam-Zuid, on the Paulus Potterstraat 7, between theStedelijk Museum and theRijksmuseum,[33] and consists of two buildings, the Rietveld building, designed byGerrit Rietveld, and the Kurokawa wing, designed byKisho Kurokawa.[34] Museum offices are housed on Stadhouderskade 55 in Amsterdam-Zuid.[33] Depending on the season,sunflowers are displayed outside the entrance to the museum.
The Rietveld building is the main structure and houses the permanent collection. It has a rectangularfloor plan and is fourstories high. On the ground floor are a shop, acafé, and an introductory exhibition. The first floor shows the works of Van Gogh grouped chronologically. The second floor gives information about therestoration of paintings and has a space for minor temporary exhibitions. The third floor shows paintings of Van Gogh's contemporaries in relationship to the work of Van Gogh himself.[35]
The Kurokawa wing is used for major temporary exhibitions. It has an oval floor plan and is three stories high. The entrance to the Kurokawa wing is via a tunnel from the Rietveld building.[35][36]
The permanent collection also includes nine of the artist'sself-portraits and some of his earliest paintings dating back to 1882.
A newly discovered work has temporarily gone on display. Van Gogh created three unknown sketches of peasants, which were then used as a single bookmark. Stylistically, they can be dated to autumn 1881.[39]
The museum also features notable artworks by Van Gogh's contemporaries in theImpressionist andpost-Impressionist movements and holds extensive exhibitions on various subjects from 19th Century art history.
The Van Gogh Museum manages an officialMeet Vincent Van Gogh Experience, described as a travelling "3D immersive exhibition" using technology and computer audio-visual techniques to cover the story of Van Gogh's life through images of his works.[41] The first "experience" was in 2016 in Beijing,[42][unreliable source?][43] and it has since been toured globally to Europe, Asia and North America.[44]
TheMeet Van Gogh Experience does not present original artworks, as they are too fragile to travel.[44] The "experience" was designed in collaboration with the London-based museum design consultancy,Event Communications (who designedTitanic Belfast),[45] and it won a2017 THEA award in the category ofImmersive Museum Exhibit: Touring.[46]
Axel Rüger, who had been themuseum director since 2006,[54][55] left the museum in 2019 to become secretary and chief executive of theRoyal Academy of Arts in London.[56] The Van Gogh Museum announced that Managing Director Adriaan Dönszelmann would act as general director until a new director is appointed.[57]
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