Thieves snatch jewelry worth $1.5B
Items stolen from Dresden museum
Antique diamond jewelry worth around $1.5 billion was stolen in a robbery at a German museum Monday.
A gang of thieves broke into Dresden’s renowned Green Vault in the early hours of the morning and escaped with three 18th-century sets of diamond jewelry.
Roland Woller, the regional interior minister, described the robbery as “an attack on the cultural identity of all Saxons.”
There are fears the jewelry, described as “priceless” and “irreplaceable” by the German authorities, will be melted down so the gold and diamonds can be sold on the black market.
Police were combing the vault Monday but are believed to have little clue to the identity of those behind the heist, which appears to have been meticulously planned.
The robbers avoided the Green Vault’s sophisticated security system by setting fire to a power relay under the nearby Augustus Bridge.
When the electricity supply to the museum was cut so the fire could be extinguished, the gang broke in through a side window in the knowledge that no alarm would sound.
The Green Vault, a baroque treasure house in the former royal palace of the House of Wettin, is one of the oldest art museums in Europe.
Its treasures include the “Moor with Emeralds,” a golden statuette encrusted with emeralds, rubies and sapphires, and a cabinet carved from pure amber that was a gift from King Frederick the Great of Prussia.
However, the thieves are believed to have intentionally ignored bulkier items and targeted the three sets of diamond jewelry.
There were unconfirmed reports that security cameras inside the museum may still have been operating, and that footage could help identify the perpetrators.
Police rushed to the scene as soon as the alarm was raised and the entrances to Dresden’s highways were blocked, but it appears the thieves had already escaped.
The stolen jewelry is believed to be too famous to sell intact even on the black market, adding to fears it could be broken up.
“These perpetrators know most works of art can’t be sold as a whole, but can be broken down into their components to make money,” Arthur Brand, an art detective, told Spiegel magazine.
“But once the works are melted down or disassembled, the art is destroyed forever,” he added.
Other theories are that the jewelry may have been stolen to order for a private collector or that the thieves could demand a ransom for its return.