The video is grainy however ominous: three hooded figures, clambering over each other to tug at a heavy entry door of the Drents Museum — an artwork and historical past museum in Assen, the Netherlands — after which an explosion and a flurry of sparks within the wee hours of Saturday.
By dawn, it had turn into clear that this was no novice housebreaking. The Dutch police mentioned the explosion was a part of an elaborate effort to interrupt into the acclaimed museum and steal a few of its treasures, together with a prized helmet fabricated from gold on mortgage from Romania.
“This can be a darkish day for the Drents Museum in Assen and the Nationwide Historical past Museum of Romania in Bucharest,” Harry Tupan, the director of the Drents Museum, mentioned in a press release. “We’re intensely shocked by the occasions final night time on the museum. In its 170-year existence, there has by no means been such a significant incident.”
Among the many stolen artifacts have been three golden bracelets and the golden helmet of Cotofenesti, an elaborately adorned, solid-gold headpiece from the fifth century B.C. The helmet, which weighs slightly over two kilos, options massive studs throughout the highest of the pinnacle.
It dates again to the traditional Dacians, who inhabited elements of the Balkan area. The helmet, which is well-known in Romania and is believed to have been utilized in ceremonies, depicts numerous scenes, together with somebody sacrificing a lamb.
The helmet and a number of other different golden artifacts have been being displayed as a part of a touring exhibition from the Nationwide Historical past Museum of Romania, and had been on show on the Drents Museum since July 2024.
Whereas the authorities declined to connect a financial determine to the stolen items, Romanian officials have called their worth “incalculable” to Romania’s tradition.
Neither representatives from the Nationwide Historical past Museum nor officers from the Romanian Ministry of Tradition may instantly be reached on Sunday.
The Dutch police say they’re investigating a connection between the break-in and a close-by automotive fireplace. The thieves, they mentioned, most certainly set one automotive alight earlier than escaping in one other.
A similar art theft happened in November at MPV Gallery in Amsterdam, when thieves used a bomb to achieve entry to an artwork gallery and stole two prints by the American artist Andy Warhol.
