In 1985, Andy Warhol took the next logical step in his ongoing study of fame and celebrity: a series titled Reigning Queens about — you guessed it — four queens whose reigns were currently taking place. Depicted in the series? The United Kingdom’s Queen Elizabeth II, the Netherlands’ Queen Beatrix, Denmark’s Queen Margrethe II and Swaziland’s Queen Ntfombi Twala.
In October, an exhibit featuring portraits of all four queens opened at the MPV Gallery in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, an art heist targeting the series has resulted in the loss of, and potentially damage to, two prints. Writing at ARTnews, Daniel Cassaday has more details on both the theft and the aftermath.
Apparently, the thieves used explosives to destroy the doors into the gallery and gain entrance. When they arrived on the scene, they stole portraits of Queens Elizabeth II and Margrethe II, removing them from their frames and possibly doing lasting damage to the prints themselves.
If you think it’s odd that portraits of only two of the four queens on display were stolen, you’re not alone. The thieves initially planned to steal images of all four, but security camera footage suggests that they didn’t have enough space in their getaway vehicle. You might think that “have a large enough vehicle for the stuff being stolen” would be a cardinal rule for thieves, but it doesn’t seem to have been the case here.
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Warhol created the artwork using a Commodore AmigaAs Jonathan Jones wrote of Warhol’s portrait of Queen Elizabeth II, the convergence of artist and subject worked to the benefit of both. “The Queen looks more human here because she is treated not as monarchs are meant to be, but as a celebrity like any other, part of the long list of famous people Warhol depicted, from Marilyn Monroe to Mick Jagger,” Jones observed in The Guardian.
ARTnews reports that the prints were originally set to be auctioned off at an art fair in Amsterdam later this month.
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