They used explosives and stole four iconic images, but left two in the street: the unusual theft of Andy Warhol’s works

They used explosives and stole four iconic images, but left two in the street: the unusual theft of Andy Warhol’s works

November 15, 2024 – 08:30

Less than 15 days after the robbery, find out all the details that are known so far and who the detainee is.

The theft of prints Andy Warhol in Oisterwijk, a town in the Netherlands, occurred on November 1, 2024 at the MPV gallery, where The thieves used explosives to gain access to the place. The boys took two prints from Warhol’s “Reigning Queens” series, depicting Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Queen Margaret II of Denmark.

The Reigning Queens collection that they wanted to steal is one of the Andy Warhol’s final worksmade in the mid-1980s. In this series, Warhol captures the essence of four influential female monarchs, using his signature screen printing technique, which combines intense colors and overlapping layers to accentuate the nobility and poise of each portrait.

The works feature images of Elizabeth II of England, Margaret II of Denmark, Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala of Swaziland, reflecting the bold and experimental style that marked the final stage of the artist’s career.

Warhol-with-Queen-Elizabeth.jpeg

What was the theft of Andy Warhol’s works like?

The thieves wanted to take the entire Reining Queens series and although it seemed like a very planned robbery, The problems started during the escapethe criminals had to abandon two other prints from the same series, those of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Mother Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini, who had no way of getting them into their getaway car due to the size of the frames .

It can be assured that the main objective was to sell them on the black market since they have a great monetary value, not only for the artist himself, but also for the figures portrayed. Although the reality is that The criminals caused irreversible damage to the works since when you take them out of their frame, a change is generated that is impossible to fix.

What happened to the criminals

The investigation is being carried out by the entire police force and several renowned detectives such as Arthur Brand, At the moment they consider that these are people who knew about thefts but not about pieces of art since they made many mistakes that damaged the works irreversibly.

The works have not yet been recovered but the authorities have already They arrested a 23-year-old young manit is known that there must be at least two more people involved in the crime but at the moment there is no certain information.

Source: Ambito

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