A revolver believed to have been used by Dutch painter Van Gogh to kill himself was sold at an auction on Wednesday.
ADVERTISEMENTA 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.