Collection of Warhol silk-screen prints stolen in articles from the artzine on artrepublic.com

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A $1m reward has been offered for information leading to their recovery.

The silkscreen pieces, commissioned by Mr Weisman, are valued at several million dollars. Among the sports stars depicted in the series of the pieces were tennis champion Chris Evert, Los Angeles Lakers basketball great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Olympic skater Dorothy Hamill. 

Police said that the artworks - each one 40 inches (101 cm) square - had been taken on the 2 or 3 September. Their disappearance was discovered by a domestic employee, who found the dining room walls bare and alerted the police. 

Andy Warhol is one of the most famous members of the Pop Art movement. Some of his best known woks are replications of popular icons such as Elvis Presley, Elizabeth Taylor and most famously Marilyn Monroe.

Warhol began to replicate a range of mass-produced images in the 1960’s, including soup can’s, coca-cola bottles and celebrities such as the sports personalities series.  He worked more and more on a signature style, slowly eliminating the hand-made from the artistic process. 

The medium of silkscreen printing which had formerly only been used for commercial purposes was ideal for doing this. Photographic images were transferred to silkscreens. These screens could then be printed onto canvases that were hand-painted with colours that Warhol thought matched the depicted image such as skin tones and vibrant magenta eye shadow. In his studio ‘The Factory’ Warhol had several assistants who produced his silk-screen multiples, following his directions to make different versions and variations.

Warhol loved celebrities and his works depicting them have developed a duel value over the years appealing to both collectors of work by Andy Warhol and to fans of the celebrities pictured. A portrait of the late Michael Jackson by Andy Warhol sold at auction in New York for over $1m earlier this year.