?About twenty works have arrived in Budapest, and more are continually arriving,? said museum director László Baán.
The first arrival for the exhibition ? ?Farmhouse in Provence?, on loan from the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. ? was put on display at the Museum of Fine Arts already on November 2.
In addition to this work, painted in 1888, the museum has since received L'Arlésienne (Madame Ginoux), one of Van Gogh?s most famous portraits, completed just a few months before his death in 1890.
The painting, on loan from Rome, is expected to be one of the main attractions at the exhibition. It is insured for some HUF 8.5 billion. Baán noted that there are more valuable paintings in the exhibition too, though he would not reveal which ones.
Budapest?s Museum of Fine Arts is celebrating its centenary with an exhibition of Van Gogh paintings the like of which has not been seen in the region in more than a hundred years.
More than 40 museums, including Amsterdam?s Van Gogh Musuem, the Musée D'Orsay in Paris and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York are lending works for the exhibition, which is one of the most valuable ever organised in Hungary.
Minister of Education and Culture István Hiller said earlier that the works in the exhibition are being insured for more than HUF 150bn.
He also said that the exhibition, entitled ?Van Gogh in Budapest?, would draw more art lovers than almost any other exhibition before. The region has not seen such a comprehensive Van Gogh exhibition for more than a century, he said.
The exhibition will cost HUF 400 million, Baán said. Most of the expenses will be for security.
Tickets for the exhibition are already available online and at 50 locations around Hungary. The exhibition is being advertised in Vienna and is expected to attract a large number of foreign visitors.
In addition to the loans, the Museum of Fine Arts will show several Van Goghs from its own collection. Altogether, it will comprise 77 pictures from more than 40 collections, including Amsterdam?s Van Gogh museum, Paris?s Musée D'Orsay and the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art.
The exhibition will be fleshed out with works by other artists who had an effect on Van Gogh or were influenced by him, such as Rembrandt, Delacroix, Daubigny and Millet.
A 600-page catalogue of the exhibition will be published in English and Hungarian.
The exhibition will run until March 20, 2007.
