The city of Boxmeer, Noord-Brabant is willing to offer a nice breakfast in bed for anyone who can lead them to or tell them about the yellow bed that Vincent van Gogh painted in his painting ‘The Bedroom’ from 1888.

English art historian Martin Bailey wrote in his new book ‘Studio of the South: Van Gogh in Provence’ that the yellow bed had been traced to a descendant who donated it to a community near Arnhem after the city’s liberation in 1945.

The mayor of Boxmeer is asking his citizens to see if they can find the bed in question. And if they do find it in Boxmeer, he’ll serve the breakfast himself.

Van Gogh originally purchased the bed in September 1888, along with a guest bed for 150 francs each, preceding the arrival of fellow artist Paul Gauguin for a stay with him at the Yellow House in Arles, France. He produced ‘The Bedroom’ as a kind of proud document of his first home. After his suicide in 1890, the bed eventually passed to his brother’s widow Jo, who brought the bed back to Holland to utilise in a small guest house she established.

In February the Art Institute of Chicago had recreated Van Gogh’s The Bedroom for an exhibition.

(Links: www.telegraaf.nl, www.independent.co.uk)