Where Is The Starry Night Today, and Why Not in Amsterdam?

MoMA records the canvas as The Starry Night, Saint-Rémy, June 1889: oil on canvas, 73.7 by 92.1 centimeters (29 by 36 1/4 inches), object number 472.1941 ^[1]. As of October 2026 the collection page placed it in the Alfred H. Barr, Jr. Galleries on the fifth floor, Gallery 501 ^[1]. Gallery numbers can change, so check that page before your visit.

The view itself came from Saint-Rémy: MoMA says it was inspired by what Van Gogh saw from his window at the Saint-Paul-de-Mausole asylum ^[1]. MoMA's 2008 press release adds a twist: the village and hills were inspired by Saint-Rémy and the nearby Alpilles but were not modeled on them closely, and the cypress and swirling sky came from his imagination ^[7]. And the painting tends to stay put: a 2010 post by MoMA's painting and sculpture department put it with a few works that stay on the walls indefinitely ^[4].

Because the family sold it. Vincent sold only a handful of works in his lifetime, the Van Gogh Museum notes ^[2] (how many, exactly, is its own story). After his death his brother Theo inherited the rest, and when Theo died soon after, everything passed to Theo's widow, Jo van Gogh-Bonger, and their son ^[2]. To build Vincent van Gogh's reputation, Jo sold works strategically to influential collectors and museums, and she sold The Starry Night to Georgette van Stolk in Rotterdam ^[2].

MoMA's release of September 1941 said the painting would go on public view on Tuesday, September 30, and a footnote adds that it had been "In the Collection of Miss G. P. van Stolk of Rotterdam until three years ago" ^[3]. Today MoMA's credit line reads "Acquired through the Lillie P. Bliss Bequest (by exchange)" ^[1]. Alfred H. Barr, Jr., then MoMA's director, called it "one of the most important paintings ever acquired by the Museum of Modern Art" ^[3].

New Yorkers had seen it before the purchase. It arrived from Holland too late for MoMA's big Van Gogh show of November 1935 to January 1936, and was added when that show returned for a final two-week run in January 1937 ^[3]. What it might be worth now is a separate question, answered in our Starry Night value guide.

Seldom. MoMA's blog put it this way in 2010: "sometimes even The Starry Night must travel" ^[4]. It was one of the stars of the exhibition Van Gogh and the Colors of the Night, shown at MoMA from September 21, 2008 to January 5, 2009 and then at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam from February 13 to June 7, 2009 ^[4][5].

MoMA says the canvas was "missing from our walls from February to June 2009," and that the museum posted alerts on its website and signs in the galleries about the absence ^[4]. If you are planning a trip to Amsterdam instead, start with the must-see paintings at the Van Gogh Museum.

MoMA's press release called the show the first exhibition to examine Van Gogh's nocturnal landscapes and interiors, with 23 paintings and 10 works on paper ^[7]. It followed his path to the night sky. The Potato Eaters (1885) was his first significant interior night scene, and The Night Café (1888) was shown only at MoMA ^[7]. The release says that after finishing The Night Café, he wrote to his sister Wil that he definitely wanted to paint a starry sky ^[7].

Then he set up his easel under the outdoor gas lamps of an Arles café, which lit the canvas enough to paint a street scene below twinkling stars, and twelve nights later he began Starry Night Over the Rhône ^[7]. The release does not name the café picture, but it is Café Terrace at Night. Our guide to Van Gogh's night paintings follows that whole story.

It is Starry Night Over the Rhône, painted in Arles in 1888 and now at the Musée d'Orsay, where the museum listed it in Room 36 as of October 2026 ^[6]. The Orsay's own description sets it beside its sibling, calling the Saint-Rémy canvas "Starry Night (New York, MoMA)" ^[6]. Dates, sizes and letters are side by side in our guide to telling the two apart, and what Van Gogh's paintings mean has his own words on the sky.