Van Gogh notebook discovered with 65 drawings: publisher

Sixty-five previously unknown drawings by the painter Vincent Van Gogh have been discovered, the French publishers Le Seuil said Tuesday, in one of the biggest art world discoveries in France in years.

The Dutch artist -- seven of whose works are among the 30 most expensive paintings ever sold -- is thought to have made the ink drawings in the accounts book of a hotel he was staying at in the southern France city of Arles.

Although the originals were not shown at the Paris press conference to announce the discovery, a book reproducing the drawings, "Vincent Van Gogh, the fog of Arles: the rediscovered sketchbook", will be published simultaneous Thursday in France, the US, Japan, Britain, Germany and the Netherlands.