Thieves Used an Axe and an Audi to Stage One of Europe’s Largest Museum Heists. Here Are 10 of the Priceless Treasures They Stole

German police continue to hunt for the thieves who carried out
an audacious raid on
Dresden’s famous Green Vault. Ten Baroque-era jewels are confirmed
missing from one Europe’s largest and most historic
collections.

Although the thieves took fewer pieces than initially feared,
the Dresden museum still fears jewels could be broken up.

Early on Monday morning, a pair of thieves used an axe to smash
a vitrine that housed three groups of jewelry sets containing
diamonds, pearls, and rubies dating back to the late 1700s. The
missing jewels are some of the best-preserved jewelry pieces of
their time. Several of them once belonged to Saxony’s 18th-century
ruler, Augustus the Strong.

“The value of the pieces individually is not nearly as much as
their historic value as ensembles,” the director of Dresden State
Art Collection, Marion Ackermann, told a press conference yesterday
afternoon. She said it was “awful” to imagine the pieces being
broken or melted down, and sold as separate parts. “We hope that
their international fame will preclude their being offered on the
market,” Ackerman added. Police have released footage of the crime,
hoping it will help track down the suspects.

The thieves entered the Green Vault through a small window via a
ladder. After grabbing the jewels, they then sped off in a getaway
car that was initially said to be a limousine, but which new
reports describe as an Audi
A6. Police were on the scene within five minutes of the
alarm being raised by museum guards who spotted the thieves on
security cameras. A fire at an electrical junction box near the
museum meant that there were no street lights working during the
time of the raid. Criminologists working on the case assume the
events are related, according to a police report.

Germany’s culture minister Monika Grütters called the theft
“appalling and shocking.” She said: “This robbery of pieces which
define our identity as a nation of culture breaks our hearts.”

The Green Vault in Dresden houses one of the greatest
collections of Baroque-era treasures in Europe. It seems that
fewer objects may have been taken because the thieves were hampered
by pieces being individually sewn into the displays.

Here are ten treasures are confirmed to be missing from the
Green Vault, in a heist said to be valued at as much as $1
billion—which would make it Europe’s largest museum heist of all
time.

The post Thieves Used an Axe and an Audi to Stage One of
Europe’s Largest Museum Heists. Here Are 10 of the Priceless
Treasures They Stole appeared first on artnet News.