Amsterdam — Two works by artist Andy Warhol had been stolen in the course of the night time of Thursday to Friday from a gallery within the south of the Netherlands, whereas two different screenprints had been deserted close by. The thieves used heavy explosives to interrupt into the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk in North Brabant province and took off with two screenprints displaying former queens Elizabeth II of the UK and Margrethe II of Denmark, Dutch media NOS reported.
Gallery proprietor Mark Peet Visser instructed The Related Press that the thieves tried to make off with all 4 works from Warhol’s 1985 collection referred to as “Reigning Queens,” which additionally options portraits of the then-queens of the Netherlands and the small African kingdom of Swaziland, which is now often called Eswatini.
Peter Dejong/AP
Visser instructed the AP in a cellphone interview that the heist was captured on safety cameras, and he referred to as it “amateurish” for the brutish strategies used to steal the prints.
“The bomb assault was so violent that my total constructing was destroyed,” he instructed the information company. “So, they did that a part of it properly, too properly, truly, after which they ran to the automotive with the artworks and it seems that they will not match within the automotive… At that second the works are ripped out of the frames and also you additionally know that they’re broken past restore, as a result of it’s unattainable to get them out undamaged.”
The works depicting former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Swaziland had been discovered deserted on the road.
“The doorway of the gallery was blown out and there was glass throughout the constructing,” broadcaster NOS stated.
Properly-known Dutch artwork detective Arthur Model stated “it’s unusual that explosives had been used.”
“That is not widespread for artwork thefts,” stated Model, who has made headlines for recovering artworks together with a lacking Picasso and a stolen Van Gogh.
The “Reigning Queens” collection by Pop Artwork pioneer Warhol was on show within the gallery earlier than occurring sale on the PAN Amsterdam artwork honest, which runs from November 24 to December 1.
“The works are value a substantial sum,” the proprietor of the gallery Mark Peet Visser instructed native media Omroep Brabant.
Model, nevertheless, instructed AFP the stolen artworks had been “not distinctive and most definitely tens of them had been made.”
“This makes it simpler to promote than distinctive works, however not that a lot simpler,” he stated.
La MPV Gallery didn’t immediately reply to a request for remark by AFP.
The “Reigning Queens” collection was created in 1985, two years earlier than the American artist’s demise, when all 4 queens had been in energy.
