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# A Surrealist Yves Tanguy Painting Was Tossed in Trash at a German Airport
- URL: https://hyperallergic.com/a-surrealist-yves-tanguy-painting-was-tossed-in-trash-at-a-german-airport/
- Published: 2020-12-14T18:49:37.000Z
- Updated: 2025-11-24T16:22:08.000Z
- Description: The painting, worth an estimated $340,000, was left behind by a traveler at Düsseldorf Airport and scrapped by a cleaning crew.
- Author: Valentina Di Liscia
- Tags: News, Germany, Yves Tanguy, #wp, #wp-post, #image-position-hidden, #Import 2025-11-24 09:08 (2019, 2020, part 3)

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](https://apnews.com/article/yves-tanguy-left-airport-found-dumpster-9f1a5f8c39e6c76c4f99e222210e9c65?ref=hyperallergic.com) 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.

https://www.facebook.com/Polizei.NRW.D/posts/2771332399781816

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](https://apnews.com/article/yves-tanguy-left-airport-found-dumpster-9f1a5f8c39e6c76c4f99e222210e9c65?ref=hyperallergic.com).