Primary school accidentally throws away artwork during playground renovation

Primary school Het Meerrijk in Kampen accidentally threw away an artwork that had been standing in the schoolyard for decades, De Stentor reports.

The work by artist Bert Meinen, consisting of a sturdy pole with colored objects on top, was placed on the schoolyard in 1978. It disappeared to the dump when the school renovated the playground in March this year.

The school thought it was a play structure, principal Natasja van Wijngaarden told the newspaper. “I’ve been working here for six years, it’s been here all that time, but I didn’t recognize it as a work of art. In any case, it wasn’t known here at the school.”

“It was taken away with the other play objects and therefore not kept anywhere,” Van Wijngaarden said. “It went to the bulky waste…” Attentive neighbors later alerted the school that it was a work of art. The school contacted the municipality, but there was nothing it could do.

The artist himself called it “a great shame” that his artwork was accidentally thrown away. “Everything of value is defenceless,” the 79-year-old Meinen told De Stentor via text message. He hopes the school or municipality will give him a new assignment to replace the discarded artwork. “Mainly to make it clear that one cannot treat art in this way.”