The Great Van Gogh Murder Mystery

The authors of a new book claim that Vincent Van Gogh did not kill himself, but was probably shot by a couple of drunken teenagers playing cowboys and artists with a loaded gun.

It’s easy to dismiss this sort of revelation as an attempt to sell books, but the BBC reports that the authors spent 10 years researching 28,000 notes with 20 translators to reach their conclusions, so they at least deserve a second glance.

Mortally wounded, Van Gogh said he shot himself, but he may have been covering for the two boys, whom he knew. — PZS

BBC:

It has long been thought that he shot himself in a wheat field before returning to the inn where he later died.

But author Steven Naifeh said it was “very clear to us that he did not go into the wheat fields with the intention of shooting himself”.

“The accepted understanding of what happened in Auvers among the people who knew him was that he was killed accidentally by a couple of boys and he decide to protect them by accepting the blame.”

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