Thieves steal Damien Hirst art from London gallery

Two prints, worth a combined £33,000, were taken after a suspect stormed the Exhibitionist Gallery in London’s fashionable Notting Hill between 3am and 3:30am on Monday.

Metropolitan Police said a suspect entered the gallery by forcing the front doors and drove the items away in a dark hatchback-type vehicle towards Ladbroke Grove.

The stolen pieces feature multi-coloured dots and are signed by the controversial artist.

Gallery manager Nathan Engelbrecht, 31, said he suspected the thieves would have known the value of the prints, which he had acquired only four days earlier and planned to unveil to clients on Tuesday.

“The speed at which it happened – we got them on Thursday and they’re gone on Monday – just seems a bit ‘coincidental’,” he said.

“It seems like it was targeted.It’s a bit disappointing – as soon as you get a big name in the gallery, it just gets ripped off. You think in an area like this, with bars and people around all the time, you think you are protected. Not necessarily.”

Mr Engelbrecht said the crooks responsible did not  take anything else from the gallery.

“The store room had not been touched at all,” he said.

“The spot prints are the most recognisable Hirst works,  the others we had were left behind.”

The gallery manager said the matter was being dealt with by his insurance company and Hirst had been advised.

“It took quite a while to negotiate because we are such a small gallery,” he said.

A spokesman for Hirst said: “This is a police matter and I’m afraid we cannot comment.”

The larger of the two stolen works is entitled Pyronin Y and is 40x46in. It was created in 2005 and is worth £15,000, police said.

The second work is entitled Oleoylsarcosine and is 26x35in. It was created in 2008 and is worth £18,000.

Detective Sergeant Jon Lightfoot, from Kensington and Chelsea Borough, said it appeared that the two items were targeted.

“The items would have been visible in the back of the car and we are appealing for any witnesses or anyone with information to please come forward,” he said.

Hirst was awarded the Turner Prize in 1995.

His more recent works include Verity, a 66ft bronze-plated statue of a pregnant, naked woman wielding a sword, unveiled on Ilfracombe harbour in North Devon last October. Hirst rose to fame as part of a group known as the Young British Artists.