Missing Appel artworks recovered

More than 400 works by Dutch artist Karel Appel have been recovered after being discovered in a British warehouse a decade after they went missing. The artist was said to be distraught when his drawings and sketches disappeared in transit to the Karel Appel Foundation in Amsterdam in 2002. Eight crates of artworks were found by a logistics company who sent it to auction house Bonhams for valuation. Bonhams and the Art Loss Register (ALR) confirmed they were the missing works. They had been listed on the ALR's database of more than 350,000 missing, stolen and disputed artworks. A settlement was eventually agreed between the ALR and the Appel Foundation, and the logistics company - whose name has not been released. "This case highlights the responsibility of companies who store and transport works of art," said ALR lawyer Christopher Marinello. He said that logistics companies store and move millions of pounds worth of art every year "but rarely check with the ALR whether the works are missing." Appel's widow Harriet said: "I am extremely happy that the Karel Appel Foundation have recovered the lost drawings." The artist, who died in 2006, was a painter, printmaker, sculptor and ceramist. In 1954, he received the Unesco prize at the Venice Biennale and he was one of the founders of the avant-garde movement Cobra in 1948. His paintings are mostly identified for their thickly-painted and swirling depictions of grotesque animals and humans.