Amsterdam’s Van Gogh museum said on Thursday it will no longer loan its version of the painting Sunflowers to other museums because of its fragile condition.

The painting, one of seven large sunflower works by Van Gogh, has undergone detailed international research which has underscored its condition. Sunflowers has been in the museum’s conservation studio since January 11 for minor repairs.

The research has established the current condition of the painting and what, 130 years after the work was created, needs to be done to preserve it for future generations.

‘One notable conclusion of the research is that the layers of ground and paint are stable, but very sensitive to vibrations and changes in humidity and temperature,’ museum director Axel Rüger said.

‘It is therefore important that the painting is moved about as little as possible, and that it is displayed in a stable climate. In order to avoid any risk whatsoever, we have decided that Sunflowers will no longer travel’.

The masterpiece was already only very rarely loaned out – only six times in the museum’s 46-year history. The last time was in 2014, when the painting travelled to the National Gallery in London to go on display alongside the version of Sunflowers from that collection. The two versions had previously been on display at the Van Gogh Museum.

Exhibition

This coming summer, the painting will take centre stage in the exhibition Van Gogh and the Sunflowers which introduces the recent research and conservation treatment.

Van Gogh painted two series of sunflower paintings. The first series of four, executed in Paris in 1887, depicts the flowers lying on the ground. One of these is on show at the Van Gogh museum and the other at the Kröller Müller museum near Arnhem.

The second set, executed in 1888 and 1889 later in Arles, shows a bouquet of sunflowers in a vase. Of the original seven paintings, one was destroyed in a fire and one is in a private collection. The others are on display in Amsterdam,  London, Munich, Philadelphia and Tokyo