A NEW BOOK claims that Vincent Van Gogh did not fatally injure himself in a self-inflicted shooting but was instead shot accidentally by two boys he used to go drinking with.

The artist died in Auvers-sur-Oise, France, on 29 July 1890 – two days after being shot. He was painting wheat fields in the area and managed to make his way back to the inn he was staying in after being shot in the abdomen.

Authors Steven Naifeh and Gregory White Smith say they spent ten years on research which included studying thousands of previously untranslated letters from the author.

Naifeh and Smith claim that Van Gogh said he shot himself in order to protect the boys, one of whom allegedly had a malfunctioning gun, and was in effect covering up his own murder.

They claim that the bullet which fatally injured Van Gogh entered his body at an angle unlikely to support the belief that he had shot himself. The BBC reports that the two authors also say the bullet’s entry angle make it “very hard to imagine” that his shooter intended to kill him.

However, experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam remain unconvinced by the new theory. Its curator Leo Jansen, who edited Van Gogh’s letters, described the new publication as a “great book”, but that experts “cannot yet agree” on their claims about Van Gogh’s death.

Jansen said the book will lead to further discussion on the artist’s death and has revived a number of unanswered questions that are worth further consideration.

- Additional reporting by the AP