Faulty air conditioning puts Warhol show on ice

An exhibition of Andy Warhol prints in the only museum in Europe dedicated to the US pop artist is being put off until September due to defective air conditioning.

The show of 60 new prints - the biggest ever at the museum in Medzilaborce, Slovakia, near where Warhol's parents came from - was supposed to have opened on August 6, but now it will start sometime the following month.

"The air conditioning broke down following the bad weather in the last days," chief curator Michal Mycko told AFP, referring to torrential rains that caused flooding in eastern Slovakia.

"Up to now, the engineers were not able to put it back to order so we changed the date to September."

Faulty air conditioning in the chunky communist-era building could damage the artwork, Mycko explained, adding: "The building clearly needs reconstruction, it represents a risk for the collection."

Bycko said the show - including Warhol's signature Campbells soup cans - will be second only to the collection of work in the mop-topped artist's native Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Warhol died in New York in February 1987 at the age of 58.

He would have been 80 on August 6.

Source: AFP, the 30 July 2008