Flickr user Ben Mason
FBI to Public: Have You Seen These Missing Warhols?
They went missing from Springfield, Missouri last week.
Even in death, Andy Warhol is probably smirking at America. The US government is offering a $25,000 reward for information about missing prints by the misfit turned mega-art star.
Early on April 7, seven prints from Warhol’s iconic Campbell Soup series were stolen from the permanent collection at Springfield Art Museum in Missouri. Yesterday (April 11) the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced an investigation into the theft, saying it will offer $25,000 for information on the disappearance.
The entire 1968 collection of ten screenprints produced by Warhol—which includes the Cream of mushroom, Consommé, and Pepper pot cans—is valued by the FBI at $500,000.
The original set of 32 paintings that the prints are based on, which Warhol first exhibited in 1962, didn’t sell well initially. Eventually the set was acquired by art dealer Irving Blum for $1,000; in 1996 he sold it to New York’s Museum of Modern Art for $15 million.
(Image via Flickr user Ben Mason)