Bungling council workers BIN valuable 1980s Andy Warhol print and 45 other artworks during clear-out

TOWN hall bunglers are in the soup for dumping a valuable Andy Warhol print during a clear-out.

They are thought to have put the 1980s silkscreen print of Queen Beatrix in the trash along with 45 other artworks during a building renovation.

It is unlikely any of the discarded pictures, together worth nearly £20,000, will be recovered.

Hans van der Pas, mayor of the Maashorst municipality in the Netherlands, said: “That’s not how you treat valuables.

“But it happened. We regret that.”

The Warhol print, part of his colourful series Reigning Queens, featuring four monarchs including Queen Elizabeth II, was kept in a town hall basement.

But the £13,000 work was thrown out when the builders moved in last year.

Queen Beatrix reigned as queen of the Netherlands from 1980 until she abdicated in 2013, when she was succeeded by her son King Willem-Alexander.

A council investigation concluded: “Ownership was not properly established, no policies and procedures were established regarding the renovation and insufficient action was taken when the artworks turned out to be missing.”

US-born pop artist Warhol, known for his Campbell’s soup can paintings, created the Beatrix print in 1985, two years before his death.

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