Art robbers have made off with two Andy Warhol silkscreen prints from his "Reigning Queens" series according to Mark Peet Visser, owner of MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, Netherlands.

Visser said surveillance footage showed armed men using heavy explosives to blast their way into his gallery, as well as the robbers abandoning two other works which they were unable to fit into their getaway car.

The works the thieves successfully absconded with were portraits of England's Queen Elizabeth II and Denmark's Queen Margarethe II. Both works on paper are believed to have been damaged when broken out of their frames.

Portraits of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Queen Ntfombi Twala of Eswatini were left on the sidewalk outside the gallery.

Warhol, a US Pop Art giant, created the Reigning Queens series in 1985, two years before he died.

Visser, who said the works were to be shown at the upcoming PAN Amsterdam art fair in late November, did not put a figure on the value of the prints, only to say, "The works are worth a considerable sum."

Being serially produced prints, the works are not as valuable as paintings or unique drawings, nevertheless, a series of four signed and numbered Beatrix prints sold for €217,000 ($236,000) at a 2021 auction at Venduehuis in The Hague. 

js/msh (AFP, dpa)