A series of clues led curators to realise that the artwork has been wrongly displayed to the public since 1945
His avant-garde use of primary colours, sharp angles and straight lines made him a leading light in the abstract movement, but one of Piet Mondrian’s most famous artworks has been hanging upside down – probably for decades.
Curators have belatedly realised that New York City 1, which the Dutch artist produced when he was living in the US in 1941, has been wrongly hung ever since it first went on public display more than 75 years ago.
The mistake is perhaps forgivable, given that Mondrian did not sign the work, and the lines of coloured tape that it features have no obvious top and bottom.
The clue that the artwork was wrongly displayed came from a photograph taken of the artist’s studio in New York City in 1944.