Two works by Andy Warhol were stolen after an art gallery in Oisterwijk was blown up, gallery owner Mark Pete Visser said.
The silkscreen works had been stored at the gallery before being sold at the Amsterdam art fair later this month. The thieves used explosives to break into the gallery on Thursday evening but failed to fit all four Warhol works into their car, security cameras showed. Two works were left behind and the other two were "damaged beyond repair," Visser said, adding, "It's a terrible shame.
The works were created in 1985 and depict four reigning queens - Beatrix in the Netherlands, Elizabeth in Britain, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Ntombi Twala, the Queen of Swaziland. Elizabeth and Margrethe were taken by thieves.
In 2021, four silkscreens of Beatrix were auctioned in The Hague for 217,000 euros. Just days after her death in 2022, two portraits of Elizabeth were sold for £529,200 and £554,400 at an online sale at Sotheby's in London. | BGNES
