Dutch Municipality Likely Threw Away 46 Artworks, Including Warhol’s Royal Portrait
Stored in a basement during renovations, the artworks suffered damage and were ultimately lost because of inadequate handling and oversight.
Accidentally throwing out your collection is any collector’s nightmare, and it happened at a town hall in the Netherlands. Last year, Maashorst, a municipality in the south of the Netherlands, made a shocking discovery after renovations to their town hall: The town hall’s art collection, consisting of over 40 pieces, was missing.
The collection included a silkscreen print by Andy Warhol of Dutch Princess Beatrix, made in the 1980s for his “Reigning Queens” portfolio. Beatrix was Queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until she abdicated in 2013. According to People magazine, the print was worth about $17,000. The entire collection was valued at about $25,000.
An independent investigation by Dutch agency BING (Bureau Integriteit Nederlands Gemeenten), conducted from November to March, determined that the artworks had most likely been thrown out by accident with “bulky waste.”
According to CBS News, the investigation determined that “Ownership was not properly established, no policies and procedures were established regarding the renovation and insufficient action was taken when the artworks turned out to be missing…Nor were there any guidelines for the registration, storage, conservation and security of the artworks.”
Dutch news agency NOS, a CNN affiliate, reported that the artworks were stored in the town hall basement during the renovations and “left unprotected, moved to different places, and suffered water damage.”
Hans van der Pas, mayor of Maashorst, told Dutch broadcaster Omroep Brabant, “This is not how you treat valuable items…But it happened. We regret that.”
If you have a valuable collection, don’t let this happen to you! Store your collection properly and keep an inventory. You may also want to have it insured.
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