diff --git a/Tests/test_000_sanity.py b/Tests/test_000_sanity.py
index 321a6b3ce17..b9dd413f932 100644
--- a/Tests/test_000_sanity.py
+++ b/Tests/test_000_sanity.py
@@ -11,8 +11,6 @@ def test_sanity(self):
         # Make sure we have the binary extension
         PIL.Image.core.new("L", (100, 100))
 
-        self.assertEqual(PIL.Image.VERSION[:3], '1.1')
-
         # Create an image and do stuff with it.
         im = PIL.Image.new("1", (100, 100))
         self.assertEqual((im.mode, im.size), ('1', (100, 100)))
diff --git a/src/PIL/Image.py b/src/PIL/Image.py
index e72c5b370d1..05cd3265496 100644
--- a/src/PIL/Image.py
+++ b/src/PIL/Image.py
@@ -24,10 +24,10 @@
 # See the README file for information on usage and redistribution.
 #
 
-# VERSION is deprecated and will be removed in Pillow 6.0.0.
-# PILLOW_VERSION is deprecated and will be removed after that.
+# VERSION was removed in Pillow 6.0.0.
+# PILLOW_VERSION is deprecated and will be removed in Pillow 7.0.0.
 # Use __version__ instead.
-from . import VERSION, PILLOW_VERSION, __version__, _plugins
+from . import PILLOW_VERSION, __version__, _plugins
 from ._util import py3
 
 import logging
@@ -60,8 +60,7 @@
     from collections import Callable
 
 
-# Silence warnings
-assert VERSION
+# Silence warning
 assert PILLOW_VERSION
 
 logger = logging.getLogger(__name__)
diff --git a/src/PIL/ImageCms.py b/src/PIL/ImageCms.py
index 29959a83aec..2cd6f33b55d 100644
--- a/src/PIL/ImageCms.py
+++ b/src/PIL/ImageCms.py
@@ -950,5 +950,5 @@ def versions():
 
     return (
         VERSION, core.littlecms_version,
-        sys.version.split()[0], Image.VERSION
+        sys.version.split()[0], Image.__version__
     )
diff --git a/src/PIL/__init__.py b/src/PIL/__init__.py
index bc8cfed8c7b..ec0611b6810 100644
--- a/src/PIL/__init__.py
+++ b/src/PIL/__init__.py
@@ -16,10 +16,9 @@
 
 from . import _version
 
-# VERSION is deprecated and will be removed in Pillow 6.0.0.
-# PILLOW_VERSION is deprecated and will be removed after that.
+# VERSION was removed in Pillow 6.0.0.
+# PILLOW_VERSION is deprecated and will be removed in Pillow 7.0.0.
 # Use __version__ instead.
-VERSION = '1.1.7'  # PIL Version
 PILLOW_VERSION = __version__ = _version.__version__
 
 del _version