Last week, a number of colour screen prints from Andy Warhol's Campbell’s Soup Can series were stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri. Local police are now investigating the burglary and the museum has closed its exhibition The Electric Garden of Our Minds: British/American Pop, which was due to run until 17 April.
In a press statement released on the museum’s website, the public affairs officer for the city’s police department declined to disclose the number of prints that were stolen late Wednesday or early Thursday, but confirmed that the FBI and Interpol have been notified about the theft. Since the museum is funded through city-wide property taxes, stolen works of art are covered by a fine arts insurance policy with an annual premium of around $14,000, a spokeswoman for the city of Springfield said.
Warhol created 32 soup can canvases in the 1960s. According to the museum’s online database, in 1985 the museum received ten prints from the series as a gift from Ronald, Robert and Larry Greenburg. The prints were created in 1968 at Warhol’s New York City studio, The Factory. Last year, Christie’s auction house in London sold a similar screen print from the same year for $30,660.