Andy Warhol's 'diamond-dusted' Queens join Royal Collection

Four "diamond-dusted" portraits of the Queen by Andy Warhol have been acquired by the Royal Collection and are to go on display to mark the diamond jubilee. The screenprints, which are from the US artist's Royal Edition, are sprinkled with fine particles of crushed glass which sparkle in the light like diamonds. The 100cm x 80cm brightly coloured images, from the 14th set in a special edition of 30, will now go on display at Windsor Castle as part of an exhibition entitled The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch. The exhibition, which opens on 23 November, features a selection of commissioned and formal portraits that highlight the many ways the Queen has been represented in different media throughout her reign, and celebrating both the jubilee and the anniversary of the coronation. Warhol, who once said: "I want to be as famous as the Queen of England," created the images in 1985 as part of his largest portfolio of screen prints on paper, Reigning Queens, which also included prints of Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands, Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Queen Ntombi of Swaziland. As in many of his other famous works, Warhol used an earlier photograph to create his portrait. The photograph of the Queen was taken in April 1975 by the Reading-based photographer Peter Grugeon, and released for official use during the silver jubilee. The Queen: Portraits of a Monarch runs from 23 November 2012 to 9 June 2013