Two artworks by Andy Warhol including one of Queen Elizabeth II have been stolen during an “amateurish” overnight break-in at a gallery in the Netherlands.
Thieves blew open doors at the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, a town in the North Brabant province, and made off with two silkscreens from the iconic American pop artist’s Reigning Queens series.
Another two prints were left badly damaged in the street when criminals discovered they wouldn’t fit in a getaway car, owner Mark Peet Visser said.
Mr Visser told Dutch broadcaster NOS the works taken were of the late Elizabeth II and Margrethe II, who was Queen of Denmark until her abdication earlier this year.
The burglary was captured on security cameras, Mr Visser said, describing the whole thing as amateurish, adding: “The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed.”
Police confirmed there appeared to have been some form of explosion and a lot of damage to the gallery plus nearby stores.
Mr Visser said: “So they did that part of it well, too well actually.
“And then they ran to the car with the prints 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.”
According to NOS, the two abandoned prints in Warhol’s 1985 series depicted Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland.
All were being kept at the gallery ahead of the PAN Amsterdam art fair later this month, where they were due to be put up for sale as a set.
