After a year of public sparring, Amsterdam's Van Gogh Museum has settled its funding dispute with the Dutch Ministry of Culture, clearing the way for a long-planned refurbishment. The museum, which draws close to two million visitors a year, had asked the government to raise its annual subsidy to roughly $13 million so it could future-proof its buildings. The ministry refused, arguing the institution should finance the work from its own resources. The disagreement escalated sharply. The museum's director publicly warned that the institution could be forced to close, and filed a legal complaint arguing that the state's position breached a 1962 agreement under which the Van Gogh family transferred its collection — more than 200 paintings, 500 drawings and 900 letters, plus works by contemporaries — to a foundation in exchange for a state-built and state-maintained museum. Mediation followed, and the legal proceedings were paused before reaching a hearing. The settlement now allows the renovation to begin in late 2028. Crucially, the museum will remain open throughout the works, a marked contrast with the earlier warnings of closure. The dispute had become one of Europe's most closely watched museum funding battles, pitting the country's most visited art institution against a government facing tight budget limits. The outcome gives both sides something to claim: the state preserves the spirit of the founding agreement while the museum gains the certainty to plan a multiyear construction programme. For the Dutch museum sector, the case sets a precedent for how historic state-museum compacts are interpreted when buildings constructed decades ago require expensive renewal.