Hotel staff accidentally tosses $3.6 million dollar painting in trash
A Chinese ink wash painting, titled Snowy Mountain and painted by Cui Ruzhuo, recently sold at auction HK$28.75 million ($3.6 million US). The art never met it’s new owner. Someone put it out for trash.
A police source in China said officers checked over closed-circuit TV footage and saw a security guard at the Grand Hyatt hotel, where the auction was held, kick the packaged artwork over to a pile of trash. Cleaners were then seen disposing of the rubbish, which is believed to have been taken to landfill in Tuen Mun.
Police searched the landfill but came up empty.
A Grand Hyatt spokesman said the hotel would not be responsible for the painting getting tossed but the cops are treating the case as a theft. So far, no arrests have been made.
Police search landfill for HK$28 million painting ‘after cleaners mistake it for rubbish’ via South China Morning Post
