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Image source: AP Photo/Peter Dejong via apnews.com.
Movies like The Thomas Crown Affair (either version) would have us believe that art heists are complex adventures, planned meticulously, with all sorts of tech and deception. In reality, it’s often much different. At least it was recently at the MPV, a gallery in the Netherlands, in the small village of Oiserwijk.
In the early AM of Friday, November 1, 2024, residents living near the gallery heard a large explosion that rocked area homes and buildings. It came from the front door of the gallery. Thieves detonated an explosive device that blew the front doors off the building, shattering windows and raining shards of glass all around the perimeter.
Four screened prints from Warhol’s “Reigning Queens” series were stolen or damaged in what gallery owner Mark Peet Visser called an “amateurish” attempt. Visser is quoted by the Associated Press, stating, “The bomb attack was so violent that my entire building was destroyed, and nearby stores were also damaged.” Visser also told AP that the thieves wanted to steal four paintings. However, evidence shows that two were left behind since the thieves could not figure out how to get the prints into their getaway car.
Visser continued, “And then they ran to the car with the artworks, and it turns out that they won’t fit in the car. … At that moment, the works are ripped out of the frames, and you also know that they are damaged beyond repair because it is impossible to get them out undamaged.”
The prints were supposed to be part of PAN Amsterdam 2024, an art fair scheduled to begin on 11/24/24 at RAI Amsterdam. The fair will continue, but the four prints by Warhol, the two that the thieves got away with and the two left behind, are said to be so badly damaged that it will be impossible to restore them. Warhol completed the series in 1985, focusing on four queens who were active rulers then.
The thieves took the prints of Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom and Queen Margarethe II of Denmark, leaving behind the prints depicting Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntombi Tfwala. No group or person has come forward to claim responsibility; however, the Associated Press reported last night that Dutch police have arrested a suspect in the theft and bombing.
Brenda Kelley Kim lives in the Boston area. She is the author of Sink or Swim: Tales From the Deep End of Everywhere and writes a weekly syndicated column for The Marblehead Weekly News/Essex Media Group. When not writing or walking her snorty pug, Penny, she enjoys yard sales, flea markets, and badminton.
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