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Duesseldorf Police / AP
Chief Detective Michael Dietz holding the abandoned painting by French artist Yves Tanguy.
A surreal painting valued at more than a quarter of a million euros that was left behind by a businessman at Duesseldorf airport has been recovered from a nearby recycling bin, German police said.
The businessman, whose identity was not disclosed, accidentally left the painting of French surrealist Yves Tanguy at a check-in counter while boarding a flight from Duesseldorf to Tel Aviv on November 27.
When he landed in Israel and contacted the Duesseldorf police, the € 280,000 (NZ $ 479,061) artwork, which had been wrapped in cardboard, had disappeared.
Despite multiple emails with details about the 40×60-centimeter painting, authorities were unable to locate the artwork, said police spokesman Andre Hartwig.
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It was only after the businessman’s nephew traveled to the airport from neighboring Belgium and spoke to police directly with more information that an inspector was able to trace the painting back to the paper recycling bin used by the airport cleaning company.
“This was definitely one of our happiest stories this year,” Hartwig said. “It was a real detective job.”
