Here Are 10 Priceless Baroque Treasures Missing After the Heist of Dresden’s Green Vault

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 smashed 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 made their getaway in a
car. 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.

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After the Heist of Dresden’s Green Vault appeared first on
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