Two Warhol Prints Stolen, Two Damaged in Botched Netherlands Gallery Heist

TwoAndy Warholscreen prints from a four-part edition of his 1985 “Reigning Queens” series were filched and the other two harmed during a botched November 1 robbery that saw the thieves blow the doors off the Oisterwijk, Netherlands, gallery where they were housed. CCTV camera showed the decidedly unsmooth criminals using explosives to gain entry toMPV Galleryin the wee hours of the morning, and then exiting to their getaway car. Upon apparently learning that the works would not fit in the vehicle, the burglars ripped two from their frames and left the other two damaged in the street.

Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser toldThe Guardianthat the robbers managed to abscond with portraits of Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and former Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, while those of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala, known as the Queen Mother of Eswatini, were left behind. Visser told the paper, “The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed.” According toArtnet News, which cited a local news report, the blast woke neighbors and sent the gallery’s door handle flying 160 feet.

The getaway car has since been recovered, and a local investigation is ongoing. Police have issued a call for witnesses. Noting that the prints could not be sold on the open market, as they are numbered, Visser told Dutch news outlet HLN, “This heist was clearly commissioned by someone who wanted to look at them tonight with a nice glass of wine at home, I think. What else can they do with them now? Light the fireplace or something, no idea what they are going to do with them.”

Art detective Arthur Brand—who famously recovered a $6.9 million van Gogh canvas last year, receiving it in an IKEA bag in a public handover—told the Art Newspaper that he did not think the heist was commissioned. “I think it was some criminals who are not really specialized in art theft, saw an opportunity and thought: Let’s first steal them and afterwards see what we can do,” he said, “and everything went wrong.”