[7] The museum opened on 2 June 1973,[1] and its buildings were designed by Gerrit Rietveld and Kisho Kurokawa.

Upon Vincent van Gogh's death in 1890, his work not sold fell into the possession of his brother Theo.

Theo died six months after Vincent, leaving the work in the possession of his widow, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger.

[8] Selling many of Vincent's paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained a private collection of his works.

[14] On 9 September 2013, the museum unveiled a long-lost Van Gogh painting that spent years in a Norwegian attic believed to be by another painter.

Sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes.

[18] In 2002, two paintings were stolen from the museum, Congregation Leaving the Reformed Church in Nuenen and View of the Sea at Scheveningen.

[25] The museum is situated at the Museumplein in Amsterdam-Zuid, on the Paulus Potterstraat 7, between the Stedelijk Museum and the Rijksmuseum,[26] and consists of two buildings, the Rietveld building, designed by Gerrit Rietveld, and the Kurokawa wing, designed by Kisho Kurokawa.

[28][29] The museum houses the largest Van Gogh collection in the world,[30] with 200 paintings, 400 drawings, and 700 letters by the artist.

[32] The museum also features notable artworks by Van Gogh's contemporaries in the Impressionist and post-Impressionist movements and holds extensive exhibitions on various subjects from 19th Century art history.

The museum has sculptures by Auguste Rodin and Jules Dalou, and paintings by John Russell, Émile Bernard, Maurice Denis, Kees van Dongen, Paul Gauguin, Édouard Manet, Claude Monet, Odilon Redon, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec.

[37] The Meet Van Gogh Experience does not present original artworks, as they are too fragile to travel.