Andy Warhol pieces stollen and damaged in explosive, “amateurish” heist at Netherlands art gallery

Amsterdam — Two works by artist Andy Warhol were stolen during the night of Thursday to Friday from a gallery in the south of the Netherlands, while two other screenprints were abandoned nearby. The thieves used heavy explosives to break into the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk in North Brabant province and took off with two screenprints showing former queens Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Margrethe II of Denmark, Dutch media NOS reported.

Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser told The Associated Press that the thieves attempted to make off with all four works from Warhol’s 1985 series called “Reigning Queens,” which also features portraits of the then-queens of the Netherlands and the small African kingdom of Swaziland, which is now known as Eswatini.

Visser told the AP in a phone interview that the heist was captured on security cameras, and he called it “amateurish” for the brutish methods used to steal the prints.

“The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed,” he told the news agency. “So, they did that part of it well, too well, actually, and then they ran to the car with the artworks and it turns out that they won’t fit in the car… At that moment the works are ripped out of the frames and you also know that they are damaged beyond repair, because it is impossible to get them out undamaged.”

The works depicting former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Swaziland were found abandoned on the street.

“The entrance of the gallery was blown out and there was glass all around the building,” broadcaster NOS said.

Well-known Dutch art detective Arthur Brand said “it is strange that explosives were used.”

“That’s not common for art thefts,” said Brand, who has made headlines for recovering artworks including a missing Picasso and a stolen Van Gogh.

The “Reigning Queens” series by Pop Art pioneer Warhol was on display in the gallery before going on sale at the PAN Amsterdam art fair, which runs from November 24 to December 1.

“The works are worth a considerable sum,” the owner of the gallery Mark Peet Visser told local media Omroep Brabant.

Brand, however, told AFP the stolen artworks were “not unique and most likely tens of them were made.”

“This makes it easier to sell than unique works, but not that much easier,” he said.

La MPV Gallery did not instantly respond to a request for comment by AFP.

The “Reigning Queens” series was created in 1985, two years before the American artist’s death, when all four queens were in power.