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A Dutch town hall has accidentally thrown away an Andy Warhol artwork worth approximately $17,000 during renovations, adding to the long list of valuable art mistakenly discarded by those unaware of what they possessed.
The missing piece — a portrait of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands from Warhol’s 1985 “Reigning Queens” series – was among 46 paintings stored in the basement of Maashorst’s town hall when renovations began last year. The entire collection, valued at around $30,000, was discarded and is unlikely to be recovered, according to town officials.
Mayor Hans van der Pas recently confirmed the embarrassing mishap.
Warhol’s “Reigning Queens” captured four female monarchs who ruled during the mid-1980s — Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, Queen Ntfombi Twala of Swaziland, and Queen Beatrix. Each portrait received Warhol’s signature silkscreen treatment that made him one of the 20th century’s most recognizable artists.
Though $17,000 might seem steep for a single artwork, it’s actually modest by Warhol standards.
His works regularly command millions at auction. In 2022, his “Shot Blue Marilyn” – one of four Marilyn Monroe portraits famously pierced by a bullet after a visitor to Warhol’s studio misunderstood the artist’s invitation to “shoot” the works — sold for a staggering $195 million.
The New York studio where Warhol produced thousands of silkscreen prints wasn’t called “The Factory” by accident. His production methods allowed for greater output than traditional artists who completed everything by hand — though this hasn’t diminished the value collectors place on his work.
This isn’t the Netherlands’ first art-in-the-trash incident recently. According to the BBC, a janitor at a Dutch museum inadvertently threw away two hand-painted beer cans last year. Fortunately, those pieces were recovered before meeting the same unfortunate fate as the Warhol portrait.
The Maashorst town hall — located about 70 miles south of Amsterdam – now joins the unfortunate club of institutions that have accidentally discarded valuable cultural artifacts during routine operations.
Art experts often lament how frequently valuable works end up in dumpsters, yard sales, and thrift shops when their significance goes unrecognized. While the Queen Beatrix portrait wasn’t Warhol’s most valuable creation, its loss represents yet another cautionary tale about properly documenting and protecting artistic holdings — even during renovations.
