Police arrested a 23-year-old man on Tuesday, suspecting his involvement in a bungled art heist targeting four valuable Andy Warhol screenprints at a gallery in the southern Netherlands.
The arrest follows a brazen break-in last week, where thieves blew open the door of an art gallery in Oisterwijk and made off with two works from a renowned series of Warhol screenprints depicting former queens of the United Kingdom, Netherlands, Denmark, and Swaziland, now known as Eswatini. In their hasty escape, the criminals abandoned two additional prints, which were severely damaged and left in the street.
According to a brief statement from the police, it remains unclear whether the stolen artworks were recovered during a series of coordinated raids conducted in Oisterwijk and surrounding areas, including one in Belgium. A police spokeswoman declined to provide further details.
Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser confirmed that the stolen artworks had not yet been located and mentioned that a restorer is currently evaluating the condition of the two damaged prints. Last week, Visser disclosed that surveillance footage from the night of the heist captured images of the four prints being “damaged beyond repair” by what he described as “amateurish” thieves. He noted that the culprits had to leave two of the prints behind because they couldn’t fit them into their getaway car.
The suspect, whose identity has not been disclosed in accordance with Dutch privacy regulations, was apprehended in Berkel-Enschot, a mere six kilometers (four miles) from Oisterwijk.
