Amsterdam — Two works by artist Andy Warhol were stolen from a gallery in the south of the Netherlands on the night of Thursday to Friday, while two other screen prints were left nearby. The thieves used heavy explosives to break into the MPV gallery in Oisterwijk in the province of North Brabant and made off with two screen prints showing the former queens Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Margrethe II of Denmark, reports said. the NOS.
Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser told The Associated Press that the thieves tried to get away with all four works from Warhol’s 1985 series called “Reigning Queens,” which also includes portraits of the then queens of the Netherlands and the tiny African kingdom of Swaziland. which is now known as Eswatini.
Peter Dejong/AP
Visser told the AP in a telephone interview that the robbery was captured on security cameras, and he called it “amateurish” because of the brutal methods used to steal the prints.
“The bombing was so violent that my entire building was destroyed,” he told the news agency. “So they did that part well, too well actually, and then they ran to the car with the works of art and it turns out that they don’t fit in the car… At that point the works are torn out from the frames and you also know that they are damaged beyond repair, because it is impossible to get them out undamaged.”
The works of the former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Swaziland were found abandoned in the streets.
“The entrance to the gallery was blown out and there was glass all around,” NOS said.
The famous Dutch art detective Arthur Brand said: “It is strange that explosives were used.”
“That’s not common in art thefts,” said Brand, who made headlines for recovering works of art including a missing Picasso and a stolen Van Gogh.
Pop Art pioneer Warhol’s ‘Reigning Queens’ series was on display in the gallery before it went on sale at the PAN Amsterdam art fair, which runs from November 24 to December 1.
“The works are worth a considerable amount,” gallery owner Mark Peet Visser told local media Omroep Brabant.
However, Brand told AFP that the stolen artworks “were not unique and most likely dozens were created.”
“This makes it easier to sell than unique works, but not that much easier,” he said.
La MPV Gallery did not immediately respond to a request for comment from AFP.
The series “Reigning Queens” was created in 1985, two years before the death of the American artist, when all four queens were in power.
