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There are plenty of stories about people stumbling across some incredibly valuable artwork that was discarded by someone who didn’t know what they had on their hands. That second group now includes a town hall in the Netherlands that is no longer in possession of a work of art by Andy Warhol that apparently ended up in the trash during a renovation.
Andy Warhol was one of the most prominent and prolific artists of the 20th century, and his creations can fetch a very pretty penny.
In 2022, a silkscreen portrait known as “The Shot Blue Marilyn” (one of four interpretations of the starlet that were pierced by a bullet fired by an associate of Warhol’s after they were completed due to a miscommunication concerning the meaning of “shoot”) set a new bar for his works when it was auctioned off for $195 million.
Warhol is best known for the silkscreen method that allowed him to pump out thousands of different works at the New York City studio that was aptly dubbed “The Factory,” and while some of his less iconic pieces are a bit of a bargain compared to other famous artists who did everything by hand, they certainly aren’t cheap.
In 1985, Warhold turned his attention to “Reigning Queens,” a series that spawned four unique portraits of four different female monarchs who were on the throne at the time: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
According to the BBC, one of the portraits of Queen Beatrix eventually ended up in the town hall in Maashorst, a municipality located around 70 miles south of Amsterdam.
The building underwent a renovation last year that led to the disposal of some art on the property, and Mayor Hans van der Pas recently admitted Warhol’s portrait of Queen Beatrix—which was valued at approximately $17,000—somehow ended up in the trash.
The piece was one of 46 paintings that were being stored in the basement when the renovation commenced before being thrown out, and while the Warhol was the most notable casualty, town officials estimated they were collectively worth around $30,000 and have no reason to believe any of them will ever be recovered.
This isn’t the first time a piece of art has ended up in the trash in the Netherlands in the past year, as a janitor at a museum inadvertently disposed of two hand-painted beer cans that were thankfully recovered before meeting the same fate as the Warhol.