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Secrets of the Dead

Why did Vincent van Gogh cut his ear?

During his 15-month stay in the city of Arles, in the south of France, an aspiring artist Vincent van Gogh would paint more than two hundred paintings that captured the people and places he encountered. But during his time here, he would also suffer a cataclysmic breakdown, culminating in an act of bloody self-mutilation. What led to the tragic downfall of this tortured genius?

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