Row breaks out as Van Gogh Museum rebuts academic’s claims she has found dozens of sketchbook drawings by artist

An extraordinary row has broken out between the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam and an academic who claims to have found more than 60 drawings made by the artist at the height of his powers.

Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov, a professor at the University of Toronto in Canada, and her publishers called a press conference on Tuesday to unveil an accounts ledger that she said was used as a sketchbook by Vincent Van Gogh as he travelled round the Provençal countryside in 1888.

The ledger’s veracity is backed by the respected Van Gogh scholar Ronald Pickvance, who called it “the most revolutionary discovery in the entire history of Van Gogh’s oeuvre”.

But within minutes of the press conference starting, the Van Gogh Museum, the world’s leading authority on the artist, released a statement saying the drawings were categorically not by Van Gogh, but instead “imitations”.

Welsh-Ovcharov, who has curated several important Van Gogh exhibitions, is sticking to her claims.

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She says she was tipped off about the ledger in 2013 and recalls her initial shock at seeing the first page – a drawing of cypresses.

“You know they say you have an ‘oh my God’ moment … I had an OMG. I said, it’s not possible! I knew straight away, I was a little thrown but I knew ... and it was frightening.”

The precise history of the ledger is hazy. Its owner – who wishes to remain anonymous – was given it by her mother more than 50 years ago and says she had no inkling of its claimed links to Van Gogh. To her, it was “a pretty album of drawings” that reminded her of her mother, Welsh-Ovcharov said.

In a testimony published in a new book about the drawings, the owner explains that her mother came across it, along with a handwritten journal, towards the end of the second world war following bombing of Arles and the surrounding area by allied planes.

She writes: “Following the destruction, my mother found a collection of archival materials in a separate room, including the large book of drawings and the small handwritten notebook that accompanied it. Knowing nothing about art, and with no artistic education, she had no idea of the importance of this discovery. She gave it to me as a present on my 20th birthday, and it was put away in a cupboard.”

There it would have remained, but a friend of the woman suggested she show it the art historian Franck Baille, who lived in the area. He had a hunch and called in his friend, Welsh-Ovcharov.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest Bogomila Welsh-Ovcharov at press conference about the sketchbook. Photograph: Jacky Naegelen/Reuters

She claims Van Gogh was given the ledger by Joseph and Marie Ginoux, the owners of the Cafe de la Gare in Arles, where the artist stayed from May to September 1888. Given the high quality of the paper it is likely he would have leapt at the opportunity to use it.

The claim is that Van Gogh used it as he toured the Provençal countryside, drawing things which became some of his most recognisable subjects. There are previously unseen drawings of haystacks and sunflowers and a remarkable apparent self-portrait of a sunburned Van Gogh in his tatty straw hat.

Welsh-Ovcharov has spent the last three years working “like a scientist” on the ledger and believes she has overwhelming evidence of its true nature. She said of her detractors: “You’re bringing out such a revolutionary discovery there’s bound to be people giving their opinion. There are going to be different views and dialogues.”

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The statement from the Van Gogh Museum was unequivocal. It said it had been aware of the claims for some time and, on the basis of looking at 56 high quality photographs, researchers and curators had agreed the drawings could not be attributed to Van Gogh.

“Their opinion, based on years of research on Van Gogh’s drawings in the museum’s own collection and elsewhere – the Van Gogh Museum holds about 500 drawings by Van Gogh and four of his sketchbooks – is that these album drawings are imitations of Van Gogh’s drawings.

“The experts examined its style, technique and iconography, and among their conclusions were that it contains distinctive topographical errors and that its maker based it on discoloured drawings by Van Gogh.”



If they were genuine, the drawings would shine light on some of Van Gogh’s most famous paintings such as the Yellow House, the Night Cafe and the Starry Night.

They would provide fascinating insights into Van Gogh’s summer of 1888, a largely happy time for an artist who suffered with so many demons. Welsh-Ovcharov said Van Gogh arrived in Arles “very tired, very disillusioned, very sick having drunk a lot in Paris”.

Van Gogh worked hard over the summer but by the end of 1888 his mental state had deteriorated. He fell out catastrophically with his friend Paul Gauguin and in December cut off his ear. In 1890 he killed himself.

“In 1888, he comes to Provence looking for respite. He came with optimism that he would find something in the countryside which would renew and resuscitate him.”