Raiders net €1bn in German museum heist
Fears ‘irreplaceable’ gold and diamond jewellery will be broken up and melted down for black market sale
ANTIQUE diamond jewellery worth around €1billion (£855million) was stolen in a robbery at a German museum yesterday.
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 jewellery.
Roland Wöller, the regional interior minister, described the robbery as “an attack on the cultural identity of all Saxons”.
There are fears the jewellery, 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 yesterday 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.
Founded in 1723 by Augustus the Strong, Prince-elector of Saxony, it was destroyed in the Second World War but restored again by 2006.
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 jewellery.
The Green Vault also houses the former Saxon crown jewels, but its most famous gems are not believed to be missing. The 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond, believed to be the world’s largest green diamond, is currently on loan to the Metropolitan Musuem in New York. The Dresden White, a 49.7 carat diamond, and a 648-carat sapphire that was a gift from Russia’s Peter the Great are also believed to be safe.
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 motorways were blocked, but it appears the thieves had already escaped.
The stolen jewellery 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 jewellery may have been stolen to order for a private collector or that the thieves could demand a ransom for its return.
“Not only the state art collections were robbed, but the Saxon people,” Michael Kretschmer, the regional prime minister of Saxony said.
“The treasures that can be found in the Green Vault and the Royal Palace have been hard-won by the people of Saxony over many centuries.
“You cannot understand the history of our land, of our state, without the Green Vault and the Saxon state art collections.”
‘[They] know [it] can’t be sold as a whole but can be broken down into components to make money’
‘Not only the state art collections were robbed, but the Saxon people .... You cannot understand the history of our land without the Green Vault and the Saxon state art collections’