A café in the southern French town Arles, made to resemble a bistro painted by Vincent Van Gogh, has been closed for legal reasons since July 2023.
Café Terrace at Night (1888) is one of the Dutch artist’s most notable works, painted during his time in Arles. The canvas shows the empty atmospheric exterior of the restaurant during the night. Van Gogh also painted The Night Café (1888), which shows the establishment’s interior billiards room.
Recreated from Van Gogh’s paintings, the reconstructed Café la Nuit attracted daily tourists.
“The reconstruction of the place is a job well done, except that it’s a rip-off,” a nearby shopkeeper told Le Monde.
The café painted by Van Gogh, however, was not located on the Place du Forum, in the heart of Arles’ historic center, where the reconstruction sits. Rather, the original site was in the Place Lamartine, close to where the painter once lived. Unfortunately, in 1944, the location was destroyed by Allied bombings.
Three local residents came up with the idea to recreate the famous locale painted by Van Gogh in the early 2000s. The trio—a property developer, a heritage conservationist, and a journalist—made a deal with Marseille businessman Roland Zemmour who later became the owner. The café was recreated to include every last detail of Van Gogh’s paintings and was even registered as a UNESCO World Heritage Site.
In 2015, the managers could not produced tax documents requested during an inspection. Among the missing paperwork was inventories, certificates, and receipts from the previous three years. They avoided paying VAT and business tax by declaring a lower turnover, but were accused of concealing more than €1 million in sales between 2012 and 2014.
Roland Zemmour was banned from running a business for five years by a French court in 2021 and was ordered to pay all outstanding taxes, including surcharges and penalties. One of the managers Lazare Zemmour received a 12-month suspended prison sentence. In 2023, Roland Zemmour was declared by judges personally bankrupt for 10 years.
The café remains shuttered and its future unclear.
