All of the Van Goghs in the Van Gogh Museum Almost Ended up in the Kröller-Müller Museum. Recent research has demonstrated that a bid was made for Van Gogh's estate at the beginning of the twentieth century.
A recent discovery indicates that it was not a given that the collection was preserved in its present form in the Van Gogh Museum and ended up in the purpose-built museum.
Roelie Zwikker, Senior Researcher at the Van Gogh Museum, discovered that at the beginning of the twentieth century Anton Kröller (the husband of Helene Kröller-Müller) made an offer to buy all of the works by Van Gogh then managed by Jo van Gogh-Bonger. However, the widow of art dealer Theo van Gogh and the artist's sister-in-law had no interest in selling the estate. It was thanks to her son Vincent Willem van Gogh that the collection found its way to the Van Gogh Museum, which opened its doors in 1973.
Zwikker has written an extensive article about the discovery entitled An Offer You Can Refuse.
Download the article PDF, 6.5 MB
An Offer You Can Refuse is the second in the series Van Gogh Museum Articles, scholarly articles written by researchers and curators working at or associated with the Van Gogh Museum. As a knowledge centre, the Van Gogh Museum conducts research into Vincent van Gogh and his contemporaries.