A 23-year-old man has been arrested by police investigating a break-in at an art gallery in which four paintings by Andy Warhol were stolen.

Police searched houses in four locations in the Netherlands and across the border in Belgium in connection with the theft at the MPV Gallery in Oisterwijk, Noord-Brabant, last Friday.

The suspect was arrested in Berckel-Enschot, a village 2km away from Oisterwijk, on Tuesday morning, police said. He has been placed in strict confinement and can only communicate with his lawyer.

The thieves used explosives to break into the gallery and took four screen printed portraits of queens, including the then Dutch queen Beatrix and the British queen Elizabeth II.

Potentially explosive materials were found in one of the houses raided by police in ‘s-Hertogenbosch on Tuesday.

Two of the prints were abandoned in the street when the thieves were unable to fit them in their getaway car. Gallery owner Mark Peet Visser said they had been damaged beyond repair.

An exhibition featuring Warhol portraits of the four queens – who also include Danish queen Margrethe II and Swaziland queen Ntombi Twala – is currently being held at the Het Loo palace in Apeldoorn.