Experts squabble over whether 'lost' Van Gogh notebook is real

The discovery of 65 previously unknown drawings by Vincent Van Gogh -- which had been hailed as one of the biggest art world finds in years -- set off a bitter row about their authenticity today, with Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum dismissing them as fakes.
In a damning statement, its experts claimed the contents of the "so-called lost sketchbook" were imitations and "could not be attributed to Vincent Van Gogh".
But the experts behind the discovery told AFP that the Van Gogh museum was wrong, "and it was not the first time Van Gogh museum has got it wrong".
The "lost" sketches come from the Dutch artist's time in the southern French city of Arles, when he produced some of his greatest paintings, including "Bedroom in Arles", "The Night Cafe" and "Still Life: Vase with Twelve Sunflowers".

Seven of Van Gogh's works are among the 30 most expensive paintings ever sold.
The museum's dramatic intervention came as the respected French publishing house Le Seuil was unveiling copies of the sketches to reporters in Paris.

Its book reproducing the drawings, "Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook", is to be published across the world Thursday.
Its editor Bernard Comment stood by their authenticity, claiming that the Van Gogh Museum had been wrong before and had dismissed work that was later proved to be his.
"They are the guardians of the temple, it is inevitable" that they would say that, he told AFP, but several other experts were convinced they were real, he said.

According to Comment, Van Gogh made the ink drawings in the accounts book of the famous Cafe de la Gare where he stayed at various times between 1888 and 1890, towards the end of his tormented life.
They include portraits of his friends the artist Paul Gauguin and Pierre and Marie Ginoux, who owned the cafe.
Van Gogh immortalised Marie -- with whom he had a strong bond -- in one of his most famous paintings, "L'Arlesienne" (The Arles Woman).
"The Yellow House", where Van Gogh later lived and rowed with Gauguin, was her former home.
It was after a fight with Paul Gauguin on December 23, 1888, that Van Gogh cut off part of his ear.

Le Seuil described the sketches -- which come from the most important period in the artist's life -- as "a very impressive ensemble" and insisted that "their authenticity is well established".
It said that the ledger was found in the archives of the Cafe de la Gare.
Most of the sketches in the book are of the Provencal countryside around Arles where Van Gogh painted furiously over the period of his year-long stay there.
But in a lengthy and detailed demolition of the sketchbook, the Van Gogh Museum said its experts had long been aware of the notebook whose "provenance raises many questions".