Did a Dutch Municipality Accidentally Throw Away a Warhol Print?
A silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands may have been put to the trash in a renovation, along with dozens of other works
Tens of thousands of dollars in artwork may have ended up in the trash during a town hall renovation in the Netherlands. The southern Dutch municipality of Maashorst released a letter Thursday admitting that they “most likely” threw out the 46 missing artworks following the construction project last year.
Among the missing pieces is a brightly-colored silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands by American pop artist Andy Warhol. The print is part of Warhol’s 1985 portrait series Reigning Queens, which, across 16 prints, depicted Queen Beatrix, Queen Elizabeth II on the United Kingdom, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Ntombi Twala of Eswatini. The exact value of the lost Beatrix print is debatable. The BBC’s Vicky Wong reports it is valued at $17,000, but art authenticator Richard Polsky tells the New York Times’ Claire Moses that the print is worth up to $50,000.
“That’s not how you treat valuables,” Maashorst's Mayor Hans van der Pas told Jos Verkuijlen of Dutch public broadcaster Omroep Brabant. “But it did happen. We regret that.”
An independent investigation commissioned by the municipality concluded that the artworks were likely discarded for one of several reasons, including confusion on who was responsible for them as well as a lack of procedures for dealing with the pieces during the renovation. The report was not conclusive, though, and the fate of the artwork may never be known. In their letter, the mayor and aldermen of Maashorst said, “It is not expected that the works of art will be found again.”
Omroep Brabant reports that, during the renovation, the artworks were kept in wheeled storage bins in the basement of the town hall, risking dust and water damage. The colorful Queen Beatrix print, last seen in September 2023, was likely fairly large, as many of the Reigning Queens prints measure around 40 by 31 inches.
Arthur Brand, an independent art detective in Amsterdam, tells the New York Times that the loss of artwork represents a larger problem of organizations and governments failing to oversee their art collections. Brand attributes the missing artwork to “carelessness,” rather than theft.
“I hope someone took it,” Brand says, “I’d be fine with that person keeping it, because that way the print is safer than with the municipality itself.”
This isn’t the first time one of Warhol’s queens has gone missing in the Netherlands. Last year, thieves used explosives to break into the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk. Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser told the Associated Press’ Mike Corder in November 2024 that thieves attempted to steal four Reigning Queens prints at the gallery in an “amateurish” job. They fled the scene with portraits of Elizabeth II and Margrethe II, but the two other silkscreens of Queen Beatrix and Queen Ntomni Tfwala suffered damage “beyond repair” and were abandoned on the street.