On Friday morning, thieves stole two rare Andy Warhol prints and damaged two others on the street. Its violent explosion destroyed the gallery and nearby shops.
ADVERTISINGSome thieves have burst the door of an art gallery from the south of the Netherlands and have stolen two works from a famous series of silkscreens by the American pop artist Andy Warhol. Also They left two others very damaged in the street while fleeing the scene of the frustrated robbery.
Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser explained that thieves attempted to steal the four works from a 1985 Warhol series titled ‘Reigning Queens’ (‘Reigning Queens’ in Spanish), showing portraits of the then queens of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and Swaziland. Visser said that the robbery early Friday morning at the MPV gallery in the town of Oisterwijk was caught on security camerasand called him “amateur.”
“The attack was so violent that my entire place was destroyed” and nearby stores were also damaged, he said. “So they did that part right, too well actually. And then they ran to the car with the works of art and it turns out that They don’t fit in the car. Then the works start from the frames damaging them irreparably, because it is impossible to remove them unscathed”.
Visser refused to appreciate the four signed and numbered works, which I was planning to put it up for sale as a set at an art fair in Amsterdam later this month.
The Het Loo Palace Museum in the Netherlands is prepared to host the exhibition from the series ‘Reigning Queens’ with 16 rare screen prints of the four monarchs, Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Beatrix, Queen Margaret II and Queen Ntombi Tfwala.
It was advertised as the last chance to see Warhol’s iconic series in at least five years, since the collection was going to be stored in 2025 due to the fragility of the material. The thieves took the portraits of Elizabeth II and Margaret II. The police requested witnesses as forensic experts examined the severely damaged gallery.
