Is Van Gogh’s famous bed still around?

ABED first made famous by Vincent van Gogh’s 1888 painting The Bedroom, may today still be lurking in a home or attic in a small Dutch town, an art historian claimed on Sunday.

Britain-based expert Martin Bailey said the bed on which Van Gogh slept while living in Arles, France may have ended up in Boxmeer, Netherlands, after World War II.

Bailey based his belief on a letter written in 1937 by Van Gogh’s cousin, Vincent Willem, in which he said he still possessed the bed of his famous uncle, who committed suicide in 1890.

“This was a key letter that showed that the bed had survived and had been taken to the Netherlands,” Bailey told Dutch public broadcaster NOS. “This was a real surprise for me. That was also not known to Van Gogh scholars,” said Bailey.

Bailey contacted Johan van Gogh, the elderly son of Van Gogh’s cousin “and he actually, to my astonishment remembered the bed”.

Johan van Gogh, 94, said the bed stood in his father’s house in Laren until 1945, when it was sent to Boxmeer, around 120 kilometres to the south, as part of a donation to help Dutch who lost their possessions during the war.

Aided by a colleague, Bailey then found a picture of the actual truck used to cart the donated furniture.

“That was the last bit of the puzzle. There is no question that the bed ended up in Boxmeer,” Bailey said.