Experts authenticate Van Gogh windmill painting

AMSTERDAM - A painting of a windmill newly attributed to the Dutch master Vincent Van Gogh went on display on Wednesday after spending decades in the depot of a Dutch provincial museum.

After experts at Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum concluded "Le Blute-fin Mill" was by the Dutch artist, the brightly-colored painting depicting large human figures around a mill was put on display in the Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle.

"The painting is a little a-typical for Van Gogh because of the many people appearing on it but also very typical because of the prominent role for the mill," said Ralph Keuning, director of the Fundatie museum. He had discovered the painting in 2007.

The painting, which experts say dates from 1886, was bought 35 years ago by Dirk Hannema, the founder of the museum, known as an experienced art collector but jeered at after he wrongly attributed a painting to the Dutch painter Vermeer in the 1930s.

Hennema displayed the picture in his own house until he died in 1984, when it disappeared in the museum depot, only to resurface shortly in 1993 and in 2007. The art collector claimed he owned three more Van Gogh paintings, but Keuning said no prove was found to support that.