Six family members in court over jewel theft

Six German men accused of involvement in a 2019 jewel heist at a museum housing one of Europe’s greatest art collections appeared in court in Dresden on Friday, with the whereabouts of the treasures still a mystery.

The defendants, aged between 22 and 28 who were not named under German privacy laws, are all from the same family. They are charged with aggravated gang theft and serious arson.

They are suspected of breaking into Dresden’s Gruenes Gewoelbe (Green Vault) Museum in the early hours of Nov. 25, 2019, and stealing 21 pieces of jewelry containing more than 4,300 diamonds with an estimated value of more than US$125 million.

Prosecutors said in September the defendants had not shed any light on the charges against them. Police offered the equivalent of US$556,600 as a reward for anyone who could give information on the jewels’ whereabouts.

“So far, there is no hot lead,” Juergen Schmidt, a spokesman for the Dresden prosecutor’s office, said, adding that even if convicted, the defendants cannot be forced to give any testimony in court on the whereabouts of the treasures.

There is no evidence so far that the jewelry sets were destroyed or sold, said Anja Priewe, a spokesperson for the Dresden State Art Collections museum.

“We hope that the renewed attention will (mean) more details will be revealed that will help locate the stolen jewels,” Priewe said, adding that similar cases showed it often takes a long time to solve them.

In 2016, two paintings by Vincent Van Gogh, valued at US$55 million each, were recovered more than 13 years after they were stolen in a Mafia heist.

Four of the suspects could face up to 15 years in prison if convicted, and the maximum penalty for the youngest defendants, who are twins, would be 10 years of juvenile imprisonment, Schmidt said.

The trial is expected to continue until the end of October.

More than a dozen defence lawyers represent the suspects, who are in custody.

Two have already been sentenced to 4½ years in prison for their involvement in stealing the Big Maple Leaf, a 100-kg gold coin worth US$4.2 million, from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017.

The stolen Dresden collection was assembled in the 18th century by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and later King of Poland, who commissioned ever-more brilliant jewelry as part of his rivalry with France’s King Louis XIV.

The treasure was carted off as Second World War booty by the Soviet Union. They were returned to Dresden, the historic capital of Saxony, in 1958.