The Germans are not much for Surrealism, apparently. A painting by the French surrealist artist Yves Tanguy, reportedly worth over €250,000 (~$340,000) was trashed by a cleaning crew at Düsseldorf Airport after being left behind by a traveler. It was recovered by German police last week, found at the bottom of a recycling bin.
The owner, a businessman in transit to Tel Aviv, forgot the painting at a check-in counter at the airport in November. Upon landing in Israel, he contacted German authorities, who were unable to locate the 16-by-24 inch, cardboard-wrapped work. Its whereabouts remained unknown until the man’s nephew traveled to Düsseldorf and reported the work missing at a local police precinct, where it was investigated and eventually recovered by inspector Michael Dietz.
Dietz contacted the airport’s cleaning company and, along with the airport’s property manager, led a thorough search of recycling containers.
“Sure enough, the valuable painting was right at the bottom,” said Düsseldorf Police in a statement reported by AP.
Source: Hyperallergic.com
