True or false, it’s a better story than the accepted version: Two German art historians claim that Vincent van Gogh didn’t cut off his own ear after all. Instead, it was fellow painter Paul Gauguin who lopped off the organ, as the result of a heated argument, they say, and both artists tried to cover up the mishap to forestall prosecution.

In their book, Van Gogh’s Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence, Hans Kaufmann and Rita Wildegans claim that rather than an insane van Gogh taking a razor to himself, it was Gauguin’s unkind cut on the night of December 23, 1888, that severed the extremity, the Telegraph reports. Moreover, the authors say that it was his shock from the sword attack that unbalanced van Gogh to the point that he took his own life two years later.

The book says Gauguin, who was staying with van Gogh in Arles, France, had a falling out with his host, packed his bags, and headed out. But van Gogh followed him and the argument resumed.

An enraged Gauguin, who happened to be carrying his sword, slashed at van Gogh, severing his ear.

As in the traditional account, the authors describe van Gogh delivering his ear to a prostitute at a nearby bordello, then lurching home, where police found him the next day. While Gauguin is known to have stayed with van Gogh around the time of the incident, he is widely thought to have departed before the Dutch painter’s ear.

The authors provide only circumstantial evidence for their theory, but it does offer explanation for van Gogh’s final letter to Gauguin, in which he wrote, “You are quiet, I will be, too.” Other hints were found in correspondence between Van Gogh and his brother, Theo.