I am wanting to get into collecting famous paintings like Van Gogh's Starry Night. Can you buy paintings at art galleries or where can you buy them?

Do you mean paintings or prints of paintings.?

Some small Galleries sell paintings but I am afraid you will not find anything by Van Gogh or any of his ilk for sake in a Gallery. They are sold at large Auctions for many millions of dollars or privately.

If you need to ask, you can't afford them anyway.

You'd have to find out who owns them.

try collecting up and coming artists, its great fun, there are some truly wonderful artworks out there. for instance go to
www.uprisearts.com
there are some really beautiful contempory paintings here which will surely increase in value.
best regards

You can buy original art at galleries.
You can buy prints at any number of places.

Do a google search for "art reproductions" and you'll get tons of websites where you can purchase them. As Firebrand said, if you want originals, you won't be able to purchase anything that's already famous like Starry Night, unless you maybe happen to be on a Forbes list! And a lot of them belong to museums that are not likely to give them up! Or, you could find an artist who seems to have a lot of potential and buy up their paintings now and hope that the value goes up.

If you want famous paintings you will first need many millions of dollars. Once you have that, just start telling all the people you know that you want famous paintings. Then you'll buy a bunch of things that will turn out to be fake. You will never own Starry Night or Mona Lisa. You can get prints of them very easily, or find an art student that will paint you a copy.

I actually recommend looking up art students at the local college and see what they have to offer. You can find some really amazing work and they will often let it go for a reasonable price. I know that in my art classes I have seen some things that are far better than some of the things I've seen in museums. Don't just look for famous, look for what you like.