Dutch municipality accidentally discards a 1980s Warhol print

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. 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 artworks 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).

The Queen Beatrix print that was thrown away is worth US$40,000 (S$52,300) to US$50,000, according to Richard Polsky of Richard Polsky Art Authentication.

“They’re lucky they didn’t own ‘Queen Elizabeth’,” he wrote in an e-mail, “which is worth approximately US$250,000!”

It is unclear how the works were stored and who was ultimately responsible for throwing them away. Mr Hans van der Pas, the mayor of Maashorst, declined to comment directly on the issue but expressed his dismay about the situation to the local media last week.

“This is not how you handle valuable things,” he told a local broadcaster. “But it did happen, and we regret that.” NYTIMES