Burglars steal royal gold from display after using explosives to break in
A 2,500-year-old helmet is among a host of precious items that have been stolen from a museum in the Netherlands.
Romanian prehistoric artefacts, including royal bracelets, were taken from Drents Museum in the city of Assen over the weekend.
The burglary took just a few minutes after thieves made their way in by breaking through doors and setting off an explosion.
They took the golden helmet of Cotofenesti, which dates from around 450BC.
The Golden Helmet of Cotofenesti, solid gold Geto-Dacian helmet dating from the second half of the 5th century BCE (Picture: Shutterstock)
They were part of an exhibition about the ancient kingdom of Dacia, which was situated in present-day Romania.
Interpol has been drafted as part of a large-scale investigation as there are now fears that the treasures will soon be melted down.
Art ‘detective’ Arthur Brand, who retrieved Van Gogh’s £4.7 million painting ‘The Parsonage Garden at Nuenen’ after it was stolen from another Dutch museum, said the Netherlands has become a hotspot for thefts involving explosives, the NL Times reported.
He said: ‘The thieves have realized this method works. The sky is the limit; the gates are wide open.
An area is cordoned off at Drents Museum following the explosion (Picture: EPA)
‘This is deeply concerning on all fronts. Police and government must find answers quickly.’
The historian also expressed concerns about the likelihood of recovering the stolen artifacts, explaining that gold is often melted down to be sold.
Brand stressed this is ‘a nightmare scenario for any museum’ and added: ‘Paintings are often stolen with the intent to sell or return them later.
‘But gold is stolen to be melted down. For Romania, this is a disaster. This collection was significant national heritage.’
Three solid gold Dacian bracelets were also stolen (Picture: Shutterstock)
The artifacts were on loan to the Drents museum and belong to Romania’s National History Museum in the capital Bucharest.
For Romanians, the helmet of Cotofenesti is one of the most culturally and historically important artifacts, and is pictured in school history books.
Romania’s president Klaus Iohannis descried it as ‘priceless’ in a post on Facebook.
He said Dutch prime minister Dick Schoof had assured him the authorities were taking ‘all necessary measures to identify the suspects and recover the artefacts’.
Dutch police are appealing for help to identify the suspects (Picture: Police Unit Northern Netherlands)
Police are currently focused on identifying the men in the CCTV video they released and are investigating a suspicious car on fire near Rolde.
They suspect that the vehicle may be linked to the explosion and burglary at the museum.
‘A possible scenario is that the suspects switched to another vehicle in the vicinity of the fire,’ Dutch authorities said.
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