THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The Amsterdam museum that displays a priceless collection of works by one of the world\u2019s most popular artists, Vincent van Gogh, may have to close if the Dutch government doesn\u2019t help foot the bill for major repairs to its aging building, the museum\u2019s director said Thursday.<\/p>\n
Since its opening in 1973, nearly 57 million visitors have passed through the Van Gogh Museum to gaze at iconic works including one of his paintings of a vase of sunflowers as well as \u201cAlmond Blossom,\u201d \u201cThe Potato Eaters\u201d and a colorful depiction of his bedroom in the French town of Arles.<\/p>\n
But Director Emilie Gordenker says the original building, which is owned by the Dutch state, is in such poor condition it needs urgent and extensive repairs to keep its priceless collection and visitors safe.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we don\u2019t address the major maintenance that needs to happen, we will have to close,\u201d she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview. The New York Times first reported on her concerns on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
She said the 50-year-old building needs \u201cmajor maintenance,\u201d and two years of talks with the government have not resolved a dispute about how to pay for repairs expected to start in 2028, last three years and cost 104 million euros ($121 million).<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s now getting very urgent,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
She said that during the renovation, the museum would be partly closed and would therefore earn less from ticket sales. \u201cThe only thing we\u2019re asking them to do is to help us finance the basic maintenance,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The nearby Rijksmuseum shut down for years for a largescale renovation, but Gordenker says that kind of major facelift is not what the Van Gogh Museum is appealing for.<\/p>\n
Among other things, urgent repairs are needed for air conditioning, elevators, even the sewage system.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not the fun, sexy, let\u2019s build a new wing stuff,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
In a written reaction, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science said that the museum receives an annual subsidy \u201csufficient to carry out the necessary maintenance. This position is based on extensive expert research commissioned by the Ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n
It said the museum objected to the subsidy decision last year and recently filed an appeal in a Dutch court that will be heard in February next year. \u201cIt is not unusual for parties to have a subsidy decision reviewed by the court,\u201d the ministry added.<\/p>\n
The dispute has its origins in a decision by Van Gogh\u2019s family to transfer a trove of his art \u2014 more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 900 letters along with works by contemporaries such as Paul Gauguin \u2014 to a foundation set up in 1962 to keep the collection together. In return, the government pledged to build and maintain a museum where the works could be displayed, the museum said in a statement.<\/p>\n
Gordenker argues that means the government should also help to fund the work the museum now needs.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) \u2014 The Amsterdam museum that displays a priceless collection of works by one of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":116504,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[56],"tags":[228,226,2224,227,229,75486,88,793,2026,6802,75485,75487,111,18907,5978,42793,965],"class_list":["post-116503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-arts-and-design","tag-arts","tag-arts-and-design","tag-arts-and-entertainment","tag-artsanddesign","tag-design","tag-emilie-gordenker","tag-entertainment","tag-general-news","tag-international-news","tag-netherlands","tag-netherlands-government","tag-paul-gauguin","tag-politics","tag-subsidies","tag-vincent-van-gogh","tag-visual-arts","tag-world-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=116503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/116504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=116503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=116503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=116503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}