Sometimes, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure.
But in one recent bureaucratic snafu, a known treasure most likely ended up in the trash.
The southern Dutch municipality of Maashorst appears to have mistakenly thrown out a valuable silk-screen print of former Queen Beatrix by Andy Warhol, along with nearly 50 other works of art, according to an independent investigation ordered by the municipality.
The works of art had probably gone missing after a renovation of the town hall, Maashorst officials said in a statement.
But the investigation was not entirely conclusive, and officials say they may never be certain what had happened to the art.
“It’s not likely that the missing art works will ever be found,” the mayor and aldermen of the municipality wrote in a letter to the council last week.
The missing Warhol print was part of his 1985 “Reigning Queens” series. Besides Beatrix, who was the Dutch monarch from 1980 until her abdication in 2013, the series also depicts Queen Elizabeth II of England, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Ntombi Twala of Eswatini (formerly Swaziland).
