Two Andy Warhol prints have been stolen and another two irreversibly damaged during a botched heist at a Dutch gallery early on Friday. The perpetrators targeted a complete edition of the 1985 series “Reigning Queens,” featuring silkscreen portraits of four female monarchs, hastily cutting them out of their frames.
The thieves were caught on CCTV using explosives to blow open the doors of MPV Gallery in the town of Oisterwijk at around 3:05 a.m. on Friday, November 1. According to one local report, many residents of the town reported hearing a loud bang and the gallery’s door handle was flung 160 feet away.
After the intruders gained access, they snatched “several works of art,” according to local police. They escaped in a getaway car that has since been recovered, according to De Morgen. In the rush to get away, two of the prints were left discarded on the street.
The gallery’s owner Mark Peet Visser has described the heist as “amateurish,” noting that explosives used to gain entry were “so violent that my entire building was destroyed,” and even damaged some neighboring shops. This was confirmed by local police in an official update.
Visser said that even the two prints that were successfully stolen are no doubt “damaged beyond repair, because it is impossible to get them out undamaged” in the rough way that these works were cut from their frames, he told the Guardian.
Local authorities have launched an investigation into the theft, which includes forensic testing of the crime scene and an appeal for witnesses to come forward.
The thieves made off with prints of two royals: Queen Elizabeth II of the U.K. and Queen Margrethe II of Denmark. The prints they left behind were of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala, who has been Queen Mother of Eswatini since 1986.
In a statement on Instagram, the gallery described the set of prints as “a 12th edition of 40—a rare and singular set now lost due to this senseless act.” Visser has not revealed the value of the works but reportedly planned to sell them at PAN Amsterdam art fair. According to Artnet’s Price Database, a similar print of Queen Elizabeth II from Warhol’s same series sold for a record high of roughly $856,000 at Heffel Fine Auction House in 2022.
“This heist was clearly commissioned by someone who wanted to look at them tonight with a nice glass of wine at home, I think,” Visser told the Dutch news outlet HLN, adding that the prints were numbered and could not be sold on the open market. “What else can they do with them now? Light the fireplace or something, no idea what they are going to do with them.”