By james art Mark Pete Visser said the thieves tried to steal all four works from Warhol’s 1985 series called Reigning Queens, which included portraits of the then-queens of the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Denmark and what was then known as Swaziland , but now it is Eswatini.
Mr Visser said the robbery early on Friday at the MPV Gallery in the town of Oisterwijk was caught on security cameras and described it as “amateur”.
“The bombing was so brutal that my entire building was destroyed,” and nearby shops were also damaged, he said.
“So they did that part well, too well in fact. And then they ran out to the car with the artwork and it turned out they wouldn’t fit in the car.
“At this point the works have been torn from their frames and you also know they are damaged beyond repair because it is impossible to remove them undamaged.”
Mr Visser declined to put a value on the four signed and numbered works, which he planned to offer for sale as a set at an Amsterdam art fair later this month.
Thieves made off with portraits of Queen Elizabeth II and Margrethe II of Denmark.
The footprints of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands and Ntombi Tfwala, now known as the Queen Mother of Eswatini, were left in the street as the thieves fled, Mr Visser said.
Police appealed for witnesses as forensic experts examined the badly damaged gallery on Friday.