In the Netherlands, a work by Andy Warhol thrown in the trash by mistake-Liberation
We do not know if she finished in the yellow trash can or in the gray trash. But it seems that an unfortunate competition of circumstances, mixed with a big lack of precaution, led the municipality of Uden to throw inadvertently a screen printing of screen printingAndy warholas well as a fifty other works of art, according to the conclusions of a recently made public investigation. A dumpling encrypted in several tens of thousands of euros.
The case begins in January 2022. The two small towns of Uden and Londerd, in the south of the Netherlands, then merged to create a new commune: Maashorst. The town hall of Uden then becomes that of the new agglomeration. A reorganization is subsequently undertaken and work takes place. Everything, it seems, is going well. Until the month of November 2024. A municipal councilor then proposed to sell part of the works that were exhibited in the town hall of Uden, in order to fill the culture budget of the town which is in deficit, explains Le Figaro. Within the collection, there was in particular a precious screen printing of Queen Beatrix, in power from 1980 to its abdication in 2013produced by Andy Warhol as part of a series of queen portraits called « Reigning Queens » (including the Queen Elizabeth II of England, the queen Margrethe II from Denmark and Queen Ntombi Tfwala from Eswatini).
Problem: no one in the new municipality knows where the works were stored. Besides, no one remembers having seen them since the renovation. An independent investigators’ team is commissioned to shed light on their disappearance. Number of employees and elected officials are questioned. After five months of investigation, the team concludes that it is not « Not possible to determine with certainty the fate of disappeared works of art » in « The absence of adequate management procedure » and « Guidelines for recording, storage, conservation and safety of works ». Clearly: the municipality did anything.
However, adds investigators, « We can certify that several works, including probably the screen printing of Andy Warhol, were damaged during the work and finished on the bulky. In which case, the work of the creator of the pop art movement is probably destroyed since, as recalled by a curator of a Dutch museum in the Figarothese serigraphs are « Made on paper » And are therefore particularly fragile. A dumpling encrypted at 40,000 to 50,000 euros for Warhol’s work alone, according to a specialist questioned by the New York Times.
During the investigation, a city councilor spoke of the possibility that the work was stolen by one of the town hall employees – « This warhol must be hung on the wall with one of us. » This thesis is however not very credible in the eyes of the investigators and the town hall. « It is unlikely that the disappeared works of art will one day be found »judged the mayor of Maashorst last week in a letter addressed to the municipal council.
It is the second time in less than a year that Warhol works have been missing in this region of the Netherlands. In November 2024, a gallery of a small town located a few kilometers from Maashorst had been robbed, the thieves who used explosives to blow up the door. Four prints from the same series « Reigning Queens » had been stolen. Two had finally been abandoned in the street by the thieves, who had not managed to bring all the works into their car.
