Andy Warhol’s silkscreens stolen and damaged in explosive art heist

On By Karl

A group of rogue robbers blew up an art gallery in the Netherlands, damaging and stealing famous Andy Warhol screen prints of the British royal family. According to local reports.

Four portrait silkscreens from Andy Warhol’s 1985 series “Queens That Reign” were damaged beyond repair on Thursday night when incompetent thieves used heavy explosives to open the door of the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, Neth.


Gallery enthusiast, Andy Warhol's Queen Elizabeth II. He recreates the screen print of Elizabeth with his smartphone.
A man uses his smartphone to paint Andy Warhol’s Queen Elizabeth II. It recreates a silkscreen painting of Elizabeth. access point

Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser said thieves took two portraits, ripped the valuable works from their frames and escaped. he told The Guardian.

According to the gallerist, the semi-successfully stolen portraits belonged to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom, who abdicated earlier this year. They were portraits of Elizabeth II and the former Queen of Denmark, Margrethe II.

Queen Elizabeth II Two portraits of Elizabeth from the “Reigning Queens” series sold for more than $646,000 at Sotheby’s in 2022. According to BBC.

Two more portraits were abandoned on the street in their frames because they did not fit in the vehicle, Dutch news station NOS reported.

These belonged to former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini. multiple reports.

The works were stored at MPV Gallery ahead of the PAN Amsterdam art fair later this month, and two of them sold for more than $646,000 at Sotheby’s in 2021, the BBC reported.


Photo by Andy Warhol.
Andy Warhol, who died in 1987, completed his “Queens That Reign” series in 1985. Corbis via Getty Images

“The bomb attack was so strong that my entire building collapsed,” Visser said, according to The Guardian.

According to local police, major damage was caused to the gallery and even surrounding buildings.

In the comments exit Omroep BrabantArt crime experts described the robbers as “idiots” and said the stolen paintings may now be worthless due to the damage.