Van Gogh’s pictures only occasionally come onto the market and, not surprisingly, they fetch huge sums. The odd one is sold privately through a dealer, usually very discreetly—but in a typical ...

On 23 December, 1888, the day that Vincent van Gogh mutilated his ear and presented the severed portion to a sex worker, he was tended to by an unlikely soulmate: the postman Joseph Roulin.