A crew of hacky heisters blew open an art gallery in the Netherlands — damaging and stealing a famous series of Andy Warhol silkscreen prints of English royalty, according to local reports.
Four portrait silk screens from Andy Warhol’s 1985 “Reigning Queens” series were damaged beyond repair Thursday night when hamfisted thieves used heavy explosives to bust open the door of MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, Neth.
The thieves made off with two of the portraits — ripping the valuable works right from their frame, gallery owner Mark Peet Visser told The Guardian.
The semi-successfully stolen portraits were of the late-great Queen Elizabeth II of the UK and former Queen Margrethe II of Denmark, who abdicated earlier this year, according to the gallerist.
Two portraits of Queen Elizabeth II from that “Reigning Queens” series were sold at Sotheby’s in 2022 for more than $646,000, according to the BBC.
Two other portraits were abandoned in the street — still in their frames — because they did not fit into the vehicle, Dutch news station NOS reported.
Those were of former Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and of Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini, according to multiple reports.
The works were being stored at MPV Gallery ahead of PAN Amsterdam art fair later this month — and two of them sold at Sotheby’s in 2021 for more than $646,000, the BBC reported.
“The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed,” Visser said, according to The Guardian.
Major damage was done to the gallery and even the surrounding buildings, according to local police.
In comments to outlet Omroep Brabant, art crime experts called the heisters “idiots” and said the stolen paintings may now be valueless due to damage.
