Warhol prints stolen and damaged in botched gallery robbery

Two Andy Warhol prints were stolen and another two irreversibly damaged during a botched robbery of a Dutch gallery early Friday. The perpetrators targeted a complete edition of the 1985 ‘Reigning Queens’ series, featuring screen-printed portraits of four female royals, and hastily cut them from their frames.

The thieves were caught on camera footage at around 3:05 am on Friday, November 1, using explosives to blow open the doors of the MPV Gallery in the city of Oisterwijk. According to a local report, many residents of the town heard a loud bang and the door handle of the gallery was thrown 50 meters away.

After the intruders gained access, they took “several works of art,” according to local police. They escaped in a getaway car that has since been recovered The Morning. In the rush to get away, two of the prints were left in the street.

The gallery’s owner, Mark Peet Visser, has described the robbery as “amateurish” and noted that the explosives used to gain entry were “so violent that my entire building was destroyed” and even damaged some neighboring shops. This was confirmed by the local police in an official update.

Visser said that even the two prints that were successfully stolen are undoubtedly “irreparably damaged, because it is impossible to get them out undamaged” due to the rough way in which these works were cut from their frames, he told the Guardian.

Local authorities have launched an investigation into the theft, including a forensic examination of the crime scene and an appeal for witnesses to come forward.

The thieves made off with prints of two royal figures: Queen Elizabeth II of Great Britain 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 unique set now lost due to this senseless act.” Visser did not reveal the value of the works, but reportedly planned to sell them at the PAN Amsterdam art fair. According to Artnet’s Price Database, a similar print of Queen Elizabeth II is coming out Warhols the same series sold for a record high of approximately $856,000 at Heffel Fine Auction House in 2022.

“This robbery was clearly commissioned by someone who wanted to watch it at home tonight with a nice glass of wine, I think,” says Visser. HLN, adding that the prints were numbered and could not be sold on the open market. ‘What else can they do with it now? Light the fireplace or something, no idea what they’re going to do with it.”