Warhol's rare 'Queen' collection opens at Dutch museum

A Dutch museum is dusting off a rare collection of prints by Andy Warhol of female royalty, made shortly before the pop art icon's untimely death 36 years ago.

Entitled "Royal Edition," the exhibition at the stately Het Loo Palace in Apeldoorn will feature 16 prints that Warhol made of reigning queens.

Among the portraits are also that of the former Dutch queen, now Princess Beatrix, who officially opened the show in the central Dutch city on Thursday.

"Today, the Paleis Het Loo is the only museum in Europe to hold all 16 prints of Warhol's diamond dusted 'Royal Edition' in its collection," the museum's curator Hanna Klarenbeek told AFP.

Het Loo had "one of the few complete museum collections worldwide, having purchased the series in 1986 just one year after its creation," she said.

Apart from Beatrix, the series also features prints of Queen Elizabeth II, Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Queen Ntombi Tfwala of Eswatini, formerly Swaziland.

"These four were the only reigning queens at the time," the museum said.

Only at the end of his life did Warhol have the idea to portray the four queens.

The artist produced two editions of the reigning queens series: a normal edition of 40 copies and this 'Royal Edition' of "diamond dusted" copies.

The "diamond dusted" prints are unique because Warhol accentuated their contour lines with finely ground pieces of glass to make the portraits glitter, the museum said.

Warhol made four portraits of each queen, each differing in color scheme and in the squares and rectangles distributed over them.

Among them, the portraits of Queen Beatrix stand out, Warhol said at the time.

Hers was "the best looking one of the whole bunch!" the museum quoted him as saying.

"Warhol's 'Reigning Queens' series is characteristic of his work as a pioneer of the American Pop Art movement, elevating everyday subjects to art," it added.

The Het Loo museum said it may be the last time admirers will be able to view Warhol's queens for a while, "because of their inherent fragility."

Andy Warhol died on Feb. 22, 1987 in New York, aged 58.

The exhibition runs until Jan. 1 next year.