Le Blute-Fin Mill, now confirmed as a work by Vincent van Gogh, went on display in the Dutch Museum de Fundatie in Zwolle on Wednesday. (Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle/Associated Press)

A discredited art collector who went to the grave convinced he owned an original Vincent van Gogh painting has been vindicated, as his now-authenticated work went on display at a Dutch museum on Wednesday.

Le Blute-Fin Mill is being showcased at the Museum de Fundatie in the northern Dutch city of Zwolle, after having undergone a study by experts at the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam.

Although the large human figures depicted in the work are unusual for the Dutch master, it does feature the typically bright colours he favoured, according to Louis van Tilborgh, the Van Gogh Museum's curator of research.

The painting — of a 17th-century windmill north of Paris — was previously owned by the Zwolle museum's founder, Dirk Hannema, who died in 1984.

Hannema's reputation as a curator and art expert was compromised when, during his stint as managing director of Rotterdam's Museum Boijmans, he purchased a number of paintings he believed to be by Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer. He also claimed to own seven Vermeers in his private collection.

The works were later discovered to be forgeries.

During the 1960s and early 1970s, he purchased several anonymous paintings that he claimed were by van Gogh — and felt particularly certain about Le Blute-Fin Mill, which he acquired in Paris in 1975. However, after previously being discredited, the arts community was dubious of his claims.

Only recently, after repeated requests from the Fundatie museum, did the Van Gogh Museum agree to examine the canvas in question.

Le Blute-Fin Mill will remain on display through July 7.

With files from the Associated Press