The museum contains the largest collection of Van Gogh's paintings and drawings in the world. In 2017, the museum had 2.3 million visitors and was the most-visited museum in the Netherlands, and the 23rd-most-visited art museum in the world. In 2019, the Van Gogh Museum launched the Meet Vincent Van Gogh Experience, a technology-driven "immersive exhibition" on Van Gogh's life and works, which has toured globally.
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.<ref name=nga>Template:Citation</ref> Selling many of Vincent's paintings with the ambition of spreading knowledge of his artwork, Johanna maintained a private collection of his works. The collection was inherited by her son Vincent Willem van Gogh in 1925, eventually loaned to the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, where it was displayed for many years, and was transferred to the state-initiated Vincent van Gogh Foundation in 1962.<ref name=nga/>In the years following her husband’s death, Johanna van Gogh-Bonger organized exhibitions of Vincent van Gogh's work in the Netherlands and abroad, significantly contributing to his posthumous recognition.
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. It is the first full-size canvas by him discovered since 1928. Sunset at Montmajour depicts trees, bushes and sky, painted with Van Gogh's familiar thick brush strokes. It can be dated to the exact day it was painted because he described it in a letter to his brother, Theo, and said he painted it the previous day 4 July 1888.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
By the 2020s, the Van Gogh Museum was planning to renovate its building for €104 million.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In August 2025, the museum warned that it might be forced to close unless the Dutch government increased its annual subsidy to the museum from €8.5 million to €11 million; the increased subsidy would fund part of the renovation.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Rietveld building is the main structure and houses the permanent collection. It has a rectangular floor plan and is four stories high. On the ground floor are a shop, a café, and an introductory exhibition. The first floor shows the works of Van Gogh grouped chronologically. The second floor gives information about the restoration of paintings and has a space for minor temporary exhibitions. The third floor shows paintings of Van Gogh's contemporaries in relationship to the work of Van Gogh himself.<ref name="brochure">Template:In lang Informatie (Dutch visitor's brochure, February 2012), Van Gogh Museum.</ref>
Kurokawa wing
The Kurokawa wing is used for major temporary exhibitions. It has an oval floor plan and is three stories high. The entrance to the Kurokawa wing is via a tunnel from the Rietveld building.<ref name="brochure"/><ref>The layoutTemplate:Webarchive, Van Gogh Museum. Retrieved 5 February 2012.</ref>
The museum houses the largest Van Gogh collection in the world,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> with 200 paintings, 400 drawings, and 700 letters by the artist.<ref>History of the collectionTemplate:Webarchive, Van Gogh Museum. Retrieved 30 January 2012.</ref>
The main exhibition chronicles the various phases of Van Gogh's artistic life.
The permanent collection also includes nine of the artist's self-portraits and some of his earliest paintings dating back to 1882.
A newly discovered work has temporarily gone on display. Van Gogh created three unknown sketches of peasants, which were then used as a single bookmark. Stylistically, they can be dated to autumn 1881.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Works by contemporaries
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.
Template:Multiple imageThe Van Gogh Museum manages an official Meet Vincent Van Gogh Experience, described as a travelling "3D immersive exhibition" using technology and computer audio-visual techniques to cover the story of Van Gogh's life through images of his works.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> The first "experience" was in 2016 in Beijing,<ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>Template:Unreliable source?<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and it has since been toured globally to Europe, Asia and North America.<ref name="EXP" />
The Meet Van Gogh Experience does not present original artworks, as they are too fragile to travel.<ref name="EXP">Template:Cite web</ref> The "experience" was designed in collaboration with the London-based museum design consultancy, Event Communications (who designed Titanic Belfast),<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and it won a 2017 THEA award in the category of Immersive Museum Exhibit: Touring.<ref name="THEA">Template:Cite web</ref>
