A man was killed on Wednesday (17 September) on the National Mall in Washington, DC, while unloading a 1979 BMW Art Car that was custom-painted by Andy Warhol. According to the local ABC affiliate WJLA, a winch that had been holding the vehicle in place on a flatbed truck came loose and the man was pinned under the car. Despite efforts to save him, he was pronounced dead at the scene; his identity has not been released.
The Warhol-painted sports car was to be featured in Cars at the Capital, a pop-up exhibition scheduled to take place 17-23 September in temporary pavilions erected on the National Mall between the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and the United States Department of Agriculture Building. In light of the man’s death, exhibition organiser Hagerty Drivers Foundation—the non-profit branch of the auto-insurance giant Hagerty—has cancelled the exhibition.
“On Wednesday afternoon, there was a tragic accident in Washington, DC, during which a truck driver died while unloading a car,” a spokesperson for the foundation told Jalopnik. “Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to the individual's family. Out of respect for the deceased, we will not comment further at this time and have cancelled the events planned for 18-23 September.”
The vehicle at the centre of this tragic accident, a BMW M1 that was painted by Warhol as part of BMW’s Art Car programme in 1979 and subsequently participated in that year’s 24 Hours of Le Mans race in France, had recently been added to the US National Historic Vehicle Register. It features a bold paint job of red, blue, yellow and green, and was the fourth BMW to be customised by a contemporary artist as part of the automaker’s Art Car series, following Alexander Calder, Frank Stella and Roy Lichtenstein.
In a statement to Jalopnik, a spokesperson for BMW said: “Our sincere and heartfelt condolences go out to the individual's family. Out of respect for the deceased, we will not comment further at this time.”
