Director warns that the Van Gogh Museum may close if the Dutch
government doesn't help fund repairs
[August 29, 2025]
By MIKE CORDER
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The Amsterdam museum that displays a
priceless collection of works by one of the world's most popular
artists, Vincent van Gogh, may have to close if the Dutch government
doesn't help foot the bill for major repairs to its aging building, the
museum's director said Thursday.
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 “Almond Blossom,” “The
Potato Eaters” and a colorful depiction of his bedroom in the French
town of Arles.
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.
“If we don’t address the major maintenance that needs to happen, we will
have to close," she told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
The New York Times first reported on her concerns on Wednesday.
She said the 50-year-old building needs "major maintenance,” 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).
“It’s now getting very urgent,” she said.
She said that during the renovation, the museum would be partly closed
and would therefore earn less from ticket sales. “The only thing we’re
asking them to do is to help us finance the basic maintenance,” she
said.
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.
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View of the new entrance to the Van Gogh museum in Amsterdam,
Netherlands, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2015. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong, File)
 Among other things, urgent repairs
are needed for air conditioning, elevators, even the sewage system.
“It’s not the fun, sexy, let’s build a new wing stuff," she said.
In a written reaction, the Ministry of Education,
Culture and Science said that the museum receives an annual subsidy
“sufficient to carry out the necessary maintenance. This position is
based on extensive expert research commissioned by the Ministry.”
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. “It is not unusual for parties to have a subsidy
decision reviewed by the court,” the ministry added.
The dispute has its origins in a decision by Van Gogh’s family to
transfer a trove of his art — more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings
and 900 letters along with works by contemporaries such as Paul
Gauguin — 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.
Gordenker argues that means the government should also help to fund
the work the museum now needs.
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