FBI hunts Warhol print art thieves and offers $25,000 reward

Credit: Springfield Museum

The FBI has offered a reward of $25,000 (£17,500) for information leading to the recovery of seven Andy Warhol soup can prints stolen from the Springfield Art Museum in Missouri. The prints are part of a group of 10 and were stolen when burglars broke into the gallery last week.

The prints had been on display at the museum since 1985 and have a value of $500,000 (£351,000) and the screen prints are based on paintings created by the pop artist at his studio The Factory in 1962. The Campbell’s Soup cans represented beef, vegetable, tomato, onion, green pea, chicken noodle and black bean.

The director of the museum Nick Nelson recognised the “outpouring of support of the Springfield community” and praised the quick response of the Springfield Police Department and the FBI.

He said: “For those of us who work at the museum and in Springfield’s art community, the theft of these iconic Warhol prints that the museum has had in our permanent collection for 30 years feels like the loss of a family member.”

Nelson said that the museum was working with “the proper authorities”. The FBI has a highly-trained art crime team to recover stolen items and prosecute art and cultural property crime.