The revolver, with which the painter Vincent van Gogh is said to have taken his own life, was auctioned in Paris for 162,500 euros. The estimated value of € 40,000 to € 60,000 was clearly surpassed today in the auction house Drouot. New owner is an unknown private collector, who had helped by telephone.
The gunsmith Lefaucheux’s revolver had been discovered in 1965 by a farmer in a field in Auvers-sur-Oise, north of Paris. There Van Gogh was found on 27 July 1890 seriously injured.
The weapon of caliber seven millimeters was handed over after their discovery to the owner of the hostel Ravoux in Auvers-sur-Oise, in which the Dutch impressionist died two days after the deadly shot.
In 2012, the heavily damaged revolver was presented to the public for the first time. Four years later, he was exhibited at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam – although it is unlikely that it can be said with any certainty whether the painter of the famous „sunflowers“ actually took his own life.
Already in 2011, US researchers had put forward the thesis that Van Gogh did not shoot himself. Rather, he had been accidentally hit by a bullet when young men had handled a revolver.
