Dutch Town Accidentally Throws Away a Warhol

A municipality in the Netherlands says an Andy Warhol print of Queen Beatrix has probably gone the way of many soup cans—into the trash. Authorities in Maashorst say the 1985 Warhol print, worth around $17,000, was among 46 artworks that they believe were accidentally thrown away during renovation work on a town hall last year, the BBC reports. The municipality commissioned an independent report that found the artworks were discarded amid mismanagement and a lack of oversight, reports NL Times. During the renovation, the artworks were kept in rolling containers in a basement, where they suffered water damage.

"Somewhere during that period, the art must have ended up with the bulky waste," Mayor Hans van der Pas told public broadcaster Omroep Brabant. "You don't treat valuable property this way. But it happened. We regret it deeply." The investigation found that the municipality had no system for the "registration, storage, conservation and security of artworks," the Guardian reports. The Warhol print of Queen Beatrix, who reigned from 1980 to 2013, was part of Warhol's "Reigning Queens" series. In a November heist at a gallery around 30 miles from Maashort, thieves stole two other prints from the series and left two damaged ones behind after they couldn't fit them in their getaway car. (More Andy Warhol stories.)