‘Amateur’ thieves steal two Andy Warhol prints and damage two others in botched Dutch gallery heist

Two Andy Warhol prints are missing from an art gallery in southern Holland, and two others are damaged after a botched theft.

The robbery also blew open the door to the gallery, said Mark Peet Visser, owner of MPV Gallery.

The theft at the Oisterwijk gallery early Friday, caught on security cameras, saw the thieves try to take all four works from a 1985 Warhol series called Reigning Queens.

The series features portraits of the then queens of the Commonwealth, the Netherlands, Denmark and Swaziland – a small landlocked kingdom in South Africa that is now called Eswatini.

It was created two years before the death of the American artist, when all four queens were in power.

Princess Beatrix as an older woman, posing with a screen print of her as a younger woman. — Princess Beatrix of the Netherlands poses in front of her Andy Warhol portrait. (AFP: Nick Gammon)

Mr Peet Visser said the thieves started the theft with a “bomb attack” to open the gallery door but “it was so violent that my whole building was destroyed” and nearby shops were also damaged .

“So they did that part of it well, too well actually,” he said.

Local police said in a press release Authorities were first alerted to the scene after a “loud bang” was heard at 3am on Friday.

After seeing the damage to the building and surroundings, a police explosives investigator and forensics investigators were dispatched.

Dutch media NOS reported that “the entrance to the gallery was blown out and there was glass all around the building” after the bombing.

Three screen prints of Queen Margrethe II on one wall. — Silkscreen depicting Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, part of the Reigning Queens series. (AP: Peter Dejong)

Not much is yet known about the theft “but it is strange that explosives were used,” said Dutch art detective Arthur Brand.

“This is not common for art thefts,” Mr. Brand said.

The thieves made off with the portraits of Elizabeth II of the Commonwealth and Margaret II of Denmark.

But Mr Peet Visser said that “by the time the works are taken out of their frames” they will be “damaged beyond repair as it is impossible to get them out undamaged”.

He said the thieves’ next challenge would prove to be the getaway vehicle.

“They ran to the car with the artwork and it turns out they won’t fit in the car,” he said.

The prints of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala – who is now known as the Queen Mother of Eswatini – were left badly damaged on the street as the thieves fled, the gallery owner said.

Four screen prints of Queen Ntombi Tfwala on one wall, with silhouettes of four people in front. — Silkscreen depicting Queen Ntombi Tfwala, who is now known as the Queen Mother of Eswatini. (AP: Peter Dejong)

Peet Visser called the attempted theft “amateur” and declined to put a value on the four signed and numbered works, although he noted they were “worth a considerable sum”.

Mr Brand, however, said the stolen artworks were “not unique and most likely dozens of them were made”.

“This makes it easier to sell than one-off works, but not that easy,” he said.

The theft comes as Mr Peet Visser had planned to offer them for sale as decoration at an art fair in Amsterdam later this month.

ABC/threads