Priceless jewels taken from palace
German officials stunned by theft from Green Vault
WORLD: “Priceless” sets of 18th century jewellery have been stolen from one of the world’s oldest museums.
The vault, in Dresden’s Royal Palace, contains around 4,000 objects of gold, precious stones and other materials. Authorities said the thieves had broken one glass case containing three sets of Baroque jewellery.
“PRICELESS” SETS of 18th century jewellery have been stolen from Dresden’s Green Vault, one of the world’s oldest museums.
The vault, in Dresden’s Royal Palace, was established in 1723 and contains around 4,000 objects of gold, precious stones and other materials.
Authorities said it appeared the thieves had broken open only one glass case containing three sets of Baroque jewellery made up of dozens of gems each.
Museum officials have not yet been able to determine whether all the pieces were missing, but that the sets included intricate and dazzling broaches, buttons, buckles and other items. Police said they were alerted shortly before 5am on Monday by security guards who had spotted two burglars inside the museum on video surveillance cameras. The first police officers arrived on the scene within minutes, but the thieves had already fled in a waiting getaway car which managed to elude immediate attempts to find it. Volker Lange, the police officer leading the probe, said detectives are looking into whether a fire at an electrical junction box near the museum, which took out the streetlights at the time of the robbery was linked to the crime.
He said the outage affected lights in front of a window through which the thieves gained entrance, somehow getting through bars and safety glass.
Mr Lange said they were also trying to determine whether an unregistered car, found on fire nearby with all four doors open and smelling of petrol, may have been the getaway car.
Saxony state interior minister, Roland Woeller said: “This is a bitter day for the cultural heritage of Saxony.”
He said the thieves “stole cultural treasures of immeasurable worth – that is not only the material worth but also the intangible worth to the state of Saxony, which is impossible to estimate.”
Green Vault director Dirk Syndram said: “Nowhere in any other collection in Europe have jewels or sets of jewels been preserved in this form and quantity.”
German officials believed the stolen jewels would be impossible to sell on the open market.