Elizabeth Taylor, Erich Maria Remarque, Hermann Göring, Robert Oppenheimer, they all wanted their van Gogh – and they all got it, too. In 34 mini-thrillers, Stefan Koldehoff follows the bizarre journeys of van Gogh’s paintings from the studio to their famous owners.
Elizabeth Taylor was fearful of excessive celebrity prices when she acquired her van Gogh. She sat in a hotel room in Paris while her father, an English art dealer, bid on the painting for her in London. No sooner had it arrived, than she didn’t want to part with it. On her yacht, a spare room was set up exclusively for her works of art. Even during hospital stays, she would have the walls of her room decorated with works from her own collection.
John F. Kennedy, on the other hand, did not own a van Gogh. But there was one hanging over the bed in which he spent his final night. The citizens of Dallas wanted to offer the president something special: When he visited their city at the end of November 1963, they hung van Gogh’s “Road with Peasant Shouldering a Spade” (on loan) over his bed. It was perhaps the last painting the president saw in his life.
Using photos of private van Gogh owners with their paintings, Stefan Koldehoff tells incredible stories and researches the journeys taken by van Gogh’s paintings from the studio of an unappreciated artist who was celebrated by few in his lifetime to the living rooms, safes and showrooms of celebrities and billionaires.
