Sometimes, an everyday occurrence can spark a chain of events that feels like a detective story. That is what happened to Karīna Gruņenko, a senior environmental engineer in the Environmental Management Department. Last week, she received word from her colleagues at TEC-2 that waste had been dumped in the forest near the facility. Usually, such cases are reported to the Salaspils municipal council with a request to clear the area. This time, however, a surprise awaited Karīna in the forest; she discovered that among the discarded items were 15 paintings, some of which were in good condition, making it seem disrespectful to simply send them to the rubbish heap. As it turned out, identifying the artist and getting in touch proved to be straightforward. "We live in the 21st century," says Karīna, recalling how she examined the signatures on the paintings, checked the back of the artworks for author information, and then searched online and on Facebook, where she was able to contact the artist – Latvian painter Andrejs Bovtovičs. He is a graduate of the Art Academy of Latvia and has participated in exhibitions in Latvia and Europe, as well as held several solo exhibitions.

The very next day after receiving the news, Andrejs contacted Karīna, recognised his work, and understood how these specific paintings, dedicated to Riga, had ended up in the forest.

Andrejs explains that several years ago, he collaborated with an art gallery owner from Russia who wanted to open a salon in Riga. At first, everything went well; she not only helped sell his work but also organised a solo exhibition. After a while, the business venture collapsed, the entrepreneur returned to Russia, and the unsold works remained in the premises she had rented in a basement in Riga’s quiet centre. By all accounts, the basement flooded one spring, damaging some of the works, and the new owner of the premises decided to save some money by taking everything found in the cellar to the forest—including the 15 paintings—unaware that these works held not only artistic but also commercial value.

Of course, the artworks were damaged; some had suffered from being in the flooded basement, with the canvases having gone mouldy, while others sustained mechanical damage from being thrown away. However, the artist, to whom Karīna returned the paintings, promises to restore them all, and as it turned out, some of the works were not severely damaged. Thus, Karīna returned his paintings to the artist, which otherwise would have been lost forever.