Public sale records, not an appraisal

How much is The Potato Eaters worth?

The Potato Eaters is not for sale: it is held by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, so it has no market price. The closest guide is Van Gogh's highest documented sale: $117.2 million for Verger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses), at Christie's New York in 2022. Prints and posters of it usually sell for $5–$250, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800.

Artist: Vincent van Gogh
Date: 1885
Medium: Oil on canvas
Held by: Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam

Van Gogh's record$117MVerger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses) · 2022

Own a print or copy of The Potato Eaters?

Most copies of The Potato Eaters in homes are prints, posters or hand-painted copies. They sell as decorative pieces, not as Van Gogh's work. These are the resale ranges Art Scanner's value estimate starts from.

Poster or unframed print$5–$60

Framed decorative or museum-shop print$40–$250

Large framed archival print$150–$800

Hand-painted copy$100–$800

An oil copy painted by hand, often sold as decor

Resale value in US dollars on a log scale: what copies actually sell for second-hand, not retail.

Dots under a magnifier

A regular grid of tiny coloured dots means a print, however old the frame looks.

Strokes that match the picture

Raised brushstrokes that follow the image mean a hand-painted copy. A few strokes over a flat print are added texture.

Labels on the back

Publisher, framer or gallery labels often say exactly what it is and when it was made.

Step by step: how to tell if a painting is valuable. Or scan it with Art Scanner: it checks original or print from the photo and gives a value range for the object you own.

About the painting

Five peasants share a dish of potatoes by lamplight, their hands and faces worked into knots of bone and shadow. Van Gogh wanted the colour of a dusty unpeeled potato and thought this the best thing he had made in his Nuenen years, though the drawing was attacked even by his friends.

More on the artist: the most expensive Van Gogh ever sold, and where the famous ones hang.

Van Gogh next to other famous artists

Each artist's highest documented sale, from the same research. Van Gogh: $117.2 million for Verger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses), in 2022.

Rembrandt$199MThe Standard Bearer · 2022
Seurat$149MLes Poseuses, Ensemble · 2022
Cézanne$138MLa Montagne Sainte-Victoire · 2022
Munch$120MThe Scream · 2012
Van Gogh$117MVerger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses) · 2022
Monet$111MMeules (Haystacks) · 2019
Gauguin$106MMaternité II · 2022
Botticelli$92.2MPortrait of a Young Man Holding a Roundel · 2021
Renoir$78.1MBal du moulin de la Galette · 1990

Nominal US dollars as reported at the time of sale, buyer's premium included where the source includes it.

Why it has no price

The Potato Eaters is held by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Works in public collections are not sold, so no one can put a market price on them. Sale records of other works by the same artist are the closest guide to what it would fetch.

Scan it, see the price tag

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Art Scanner result for the Mona Lisa with its $100M insured value tag — The Mona Lisa in Art Scanner: insured value $100M, Musée du Louvre, 1962

Questions

How much is The Potato Eaters worth?

The Potato Eaters is not for sale: it is held by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam, so it has no market price. The closest guide is Van Gogh's highest documented sale: $117.2 million for Verger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses), at Christie's New York in 2022. Prints and posters of it usually sell for $5–$250, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800.

How much is a print of The Potato Eaters worth?

Most prints and posters of The Potato Eaters sell for $5–$250, with framed ones at the top of that range, and hand-painted copies for $100–$800. They are priced as decorative pieces, not as Van Gogh's work.

Is The Potato Eaters for sale?

No. It is held by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam. Works in public collections are not sold, so they have no market price.

What is Van Gogh's most expensive work?

Verger avec cyprès (Orchard with Cypresses), which sold for $117.2 million at Christie's New York in 2022. Prices are nominal US dollars as reported at the time.

Where is The Potato Eaters?

The Potato Eaters (1885, oil on canvas) is held by the Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam.