A revolver believed to have been used by Dutch painter Van Gogh to kill himself was sold at an auction on Wednesday.
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A rusty gun believed to have been used by the Dutch painter Vincent Van Gogh to commit suicide was sold for €162,500 at auction on Wednesday.
Dubbed “the most famous weapon in art history”, the Lefaucheux revolver was sold by auction house AuctionArt - Rémy Le Fur.
Bidders from all over the world had gathered for the sale but it was bought by an anonymous bidder by telephone.
The seven-millimetre-calibre gun was found by a farmer in 1965 in a field near Auvers-sur-Oise, north-west of Paris, where Van Gogh spent the last months of his life in 1890.
The revolver was sold for more than double its estimated value, between €40,000 and €60,000.
It is however not the priciest gun sold at an auction. In 2016, another Lefaucheux revolver estimated to be worth between €50,000 and €60,000 thought to be used by French poet Verlaine in his attempt to kill French poet Rimbaud in 1873 was sold for €435,000 by Christie’s in Paris.