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Van Gogh Museum ‘Could Close’ Without More Help from Dutch Govt

Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum, removes the frame of a reproduction of the painting "Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat" by Vincent Van Gogh as part of an interactive section of the exhibition "Choosing Vincent - Portrait of a family history" at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, on February 8, 2023. (Valeria Mongelli / AFP)
Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum, removes the frame of a reproduction of the painting "Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat" by Vincent Van Gogh as part of an interactive section of the exhibition "Choosing Vincent - Portrait of a family history" at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, on February 8, 2023. (Valeria Mongelli / AFP)
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Van Gogh Museum ‘Could Close’ Without More Help from Dutch Govt

Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum, removes the frame of a reproduction of the painting "Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat" by Vincent Van Gogh as part of an interactive section of the exhibition "Choosing Vincent - Portrait of a family history" at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, on February 8, 2023. (Valeria Mongelli / AFP)
Emilie Gordenker, director of the Van Gogh Museum, removes the frame of a reproduction of the painting "Self-Portrait with Grey Felt Hat" by Vincent Van Gogh as part of an interactive section of the exhibition "Choosing Vincent - Portrait of a family history" at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, on February 8, 2023. (Valeria Mongelli / AFP)

The Van Museum in Amsterdam warned Wednesday that it faced closure without more state funding, saying a 104-million-euro ($120 million) renovation was vital to protect its masterpieces.

The museum -- which holds the world's biggest collection of the artist's work -- said the project could not go ahead unless the Dutch state honored a 1962 agreement with Vincent van Gogh's nephew by providing the necessary funds.

"The museum faces closure," it added "because it will not be able to guarantee the safety of the collection, visitors, and staff."

The Dutch ministry of culture rejected the warning, saying the museum already received a subsidy under the Dutch Heritage Act that was sufficient to cover maintenance.

It said its position was based on "comprehensive research" by independent experts.

But the museum has launched legal proceedings over the subsidy, with a court hearing scheduled for February 2026.

The museum houses more than 200 of the tortured Dutch artist's paintings, 500 of his drawings and almost all of his letters.

They were given by the artist's nephew Vincent Willem van Gogh in 1962 under a state-backed deal to build and maintain a museum.

"Managing, preserving, and exhibiting the collection was considered more important for the Netherlands at the time than financial consequences," the museum said.

The building, which opened in 1973, was no longer fit for purpose, it argued, after more than 50 years of heavy use.

A major overhaul called "Masterplan 2028" has been budgeted at 104 million, with the museum saying it would use its own resources to co-finance the works and cover an estimated 50 million euros in lost revenue during partial closures.

It said that an annual state subsidy of 11 million euros was needed, compared to the current one of 8.5 million.

Vincent van Gogh, who died in 1890 aged 37, produced more than 800 paintings and is regarded as one of the most influential figures in western art.

His works, including "Sunflowers" and "The Starry Night", are among the most loved paintings in the world.

The Van Gogh Museum is one of the Netherlands' most popular cultural institutions.

It drew a record 2.6 million visitors in 2017 and had welcomed almost 57 million since its opening.

It generates 85 percent of its income from visitors and private partnerships, a higher share than most national museums.

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Culture

Monumental Cave Art on Paris’ Oldest Bridge Finally Opens, as the Public Steps and Sniffs Inside

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
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Monumental Cave Art on Paris’ Oldest Bridge Finally Opens, as the Public Steps and Sniffs Inside

Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)
Visitors walk into the artwork "The Pont Neuf Cave" by French street artist JR on the Pont Neuf bridge, Tuesday, June 16, 2026, in Paris, open to the public from June 15 to 28. (AP)

For weeks, a black mountain loomed over the Seine where Paris’ oldest bridge should have been. On Monday evening, its doors finally opened.

Inside, Paris smells different. The air carries the scent of earth after rain — damp ancient stone, cellar walls, perhaps a trace of smoke.

Visitors step from the bright riverfront into a dark passage lined with glowing photographs of caves, as a low electronic pulse seems to breathe through the walls.

Beneath it all, the old cobblestones of the Pont Neuf rise and fall underfoot.

The Pont Neuf Cavern, a monumental installation by French street artist JR — also known as the French Banksy — is free to enter around the clock through June 28.

Made largely from printed fabric and air, it transforms the 17th-century bridge into an artificial cavern rising 18 meters (59 feet) above the Seine.

“It feels like the city has disappeared,” said Léa Martin, a 22-year-old art student from Lyon on Tuesday. “You know the river is right outside, but for a moment you’re somewhere ancient.”

Paris steps in and sniffs history

The smell is central to the illusion.

Olfactory expert Sarah Bouasse created two shifting scents: drawing on geosmin and isoborneol, compounds associated with the aroma released when rain strikes dry earth.

It changes along the crossing: first wet earth and mineral dampness, then something warmer, smokier and faintly animal.

“Usually I cross here without looking up once,” said Michel Dupré, a 67-year-old retiree, blinking as he emerged into daylight. “Today I felt the stones under my feet. And smelled them too. It makes you walk like a child again.”

A sound installation by Thomas Bangalter, formerly of the French electronic duo Daft Punk, accompanies the work, filling the cavern with low rumbles, echoes and pulses.

Completed in 1607, the Pont Neuf — despite its name, “New Bridge” — is the oldest bridge still standing in Paris.

JR’s installation asks people to experience the familiar crossing through their noses, ears and feet.

It also pays tribute to Christo and Jeanne-Claude, whose 1985 wrapping of the bridge in pale golden fabric drew an estimated 3 million visitors.

Their work covered the Pont Neuf in light.

The dark side JR sends visitors into darkness.

“You enter into the darkness,” he has said, “and emerge into the light on the other side.”

Visitors can also raise their phones to activate an augmented-reality experience developed with tech company Snap.

Digital bats trail light through the cave, passing bodies leave ghostly traces and a dancer materializes in space.

JR has linked the work to Plato’s allegory of the cave, in which prisoners mistake shadows for reality. Today’s cave walls, he argues, are screens and the algorithms that shape what people see. Yet the installation’s strongest effects require no phone.

“It’s completely strange,” said Nadia Benali, 34, smiling beside the artificial cliffs. “Paris needs things that make people stop.”

When the cave closes, its fabric will be reused or recycled.

The mountain will vanish, traffic will return and the Pont Neuf — older than the French Revolution — will emerge into the light once more.

Culture

A Rare First Edition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ Complete with Spelling Mistakes Is up for Auction

A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
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A Rare First Edition of ‘Wuthering Heights’ Complete with Spelling Mistakes Is up for Auction

A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)
A first edition of Emily Bronte's "Wuthering Heights", is on display for sale at Christie's auction house in London, Monday, June 15, 2026. (AP)

A rare first-edition copy of “Wuthering Heights,” complete with spelling mistakes, is up for auction for the first time in more than a century, as Emily Brontë’s tragic, tempestuous romance gains new fans through a big-screen adaptation.

Christie’s auction house said Monday that it's the first copy of the novel in the publisher’s original cloth binding to be auctioned since 1908. Only about 250 copies of the first edition were printed, and this one has been in a private library since shortly after its publication in 1847.

“The vast majority of surviving copies were rebound for collectors or libraries, meaning original cloth examples are now extremely scarce,” said Christie’s books and manuscripts specialist Mark Wiltshire.

Being sold along with a copy of sister Anne Brontë’s “Agnes Grey,” it’s expected to sell for between 400,000 pounds and 600,000 pounds ($540,000 and $800,000) at a June 30 auction in London. Both books carry the male pen names the sisters adopted to get published: Ellis Bell for Emily and Acton Bell for Anne.

“Wuthering Heights” was rushed to publication after the success of Charlotte Brontë’s “Jane Eyre,” and the first edition is notorious for its typographical errors including, Wiltshire noted, the occasional misspelling of the word “heights.”

Emerald Fennell ’s recent movie with Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi as mismatched pair Cathy and Heathcliff is the latest work to be inspired by — and take liberties with — Brontë’s brooding, Gothic tale.

The novel shocked some critics when it was published, with one in 1848 decrying its “vulgar depravity and unnatural horrors.”

Since then, Wiltshire said, it has “moved beyond literature to become a cultural touchstone,” inspiring art, music — notably Kate Bush’s pop-operatic 1978 song — and multiple film adaptations.

“It remains a work that artists return to again and again because of its emotional force, its atmosphere, and its psychological intensity, ensuring its place not only in literary history but in wider cultural imagination,” Wiltshire said.

Culture

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4
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Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

Red Sea Film Foundation Extends 48-Hour Film Challenge Deadline to July 4

The Red Sea Film Foundation has extended the application deadline for the sixth edition of the 48-Hour Film Challenge to July 4, 2026, allowing more young Saudi citizens and residents the opportunity to take part in the initiative aimed at discovering and supporting emerging filmmakers, SPA reported.

Organized in partnership with the Red Sea International Film Festival, the French Consulate General in Jeddah, and Alliance Française, the challenge is open to aspiring filmmakers aged 18 to 25, SPA reported.

Participants will form creative teams and compete to produce a short film within 48 hours after completing specialized mentorship workshops.

The two winning teams will receive awards, while their team leaders will earn an artistic residency in France in 2027. The winning films will also be screened at the next edition of the Red Sea International Film Festival.