The rusty revolver, allegedly used by Van Gogh to commit suicide, was acquired by an individual for 162,500 euros including costs. A weapon discovered in 1960 that attracted a crowd of collectors and "addicts" to the Dutch painter Wednesday at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris. The revolver type Lefaucheux that would have been used by the Dutch painter to injure himself mortally in 1890 in a field of Auvers-sur-Oise was sold to the hammer by Me Rémy Le Fur at the price of 130.000 euros (expenses not included) to an individual who was bidding on the phone and whose identity is unknown.
The lethal weapon has more than double the top of its estimate range (between 40,000 and 60,000 euros). This is not the most expensive revolver in auction history. In 2016, another revolver, also Lefaucheux, estimated 50,000 to 60,000 euros, with which Verlaine had tried to kill Rimbaud in 1873, had been awarded 435,000 euros at Christie's in Paris.
A weapon found by a farmer in the 1960s
The weapon was found in the 1960s by the farmer of the field where the painter had mortally wounded Auvers-Sur-Oise and was exposed by the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam in 2016. It had been given to the owners from the hotel Ravoux where Van Gogh was staying in 1890. It was the daughter of these owners who sold it at auction. The hotel had changed owners in the 80s. The artist, subject to frequent psychological crises, was at the top of his art, painting more than one painting a day.
On Sunday, July 27, 1890, he would have gone into a field, raised his shirt and shot himself in the chest with this weapon borrowed from his host, the innkeeper Arthur Ravoux, according to the thesis generally adopted by the specialists. The revolver would have escaped his hands and he would have fainted. He would have woken up at nightfall, hurt, and would have taken the path to the inn. Despite the care of Dr. Paul Gachet, Van Gogh dies after two days of agony in a modest room.