A necklace studded with 673 diamonds, once belonging to Egypt’s former Queen Nazli, has been stolen from a museum in Vienna, Austria.
On Thursday afternoon, while an exhibition was underway at the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), two individuals smashed a glass display case with a hammer and fled with the necklace. Their images were captured on security cameras, and the police are currently searching for them.
The stolen necklace is made of platinum and features diamonds with a total weight of 200 carats. Queen Nazli wore the necklace at her daughter’s wedding in 1939. It was sold for $4.3 million at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in 2015.
Police reported that the two individuals entered the museum after purchasing tickets. During the exhibition, they used a hammer to break the glass case and then left the museum with the necklace. Police stated, “The perpetrators fled with the jewelry in an unknown direction.”
Following the incident, a search operation was conducted in Vienna’s city center. Police also deployed a dog to track the suspects. The Austrian newspaper Kronen reported that investigators suspect the theft may have been carried out under contract for a criminal gang.
There were several people in the exhibition hall at the time of the theft, but no one was injured.
The necklace was part of a jewelry exhibition by Van Cleef & Arpels. The exhibition had been running at the MAK museum since last June, showcasing over 300 pieces from the French jewelry house.
According to exhibition records, Queen Nazli wore the necklace at the 1939 wedding of her daughter, Fawzia. Fawzia married the then-Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became the Shah of Iran.
MAK stated that the exhibition featured approximately 200 special and rare items. These included pieces from the museum’s own collection as well as jewelry spanning the 120-year history of Van Cleef & Arpels.
A guided tour scheduled for Friday afternoon was cancelled following the theft. The exhibition has also been temporarily closed; it was originally scheduled to end on September 27.
A String of Thefts in European Museums
The theft in Vienna is the latest in a series of major museum heists across Europe.
Last October, thieves entered the Louvre Museum in Paris during the day, stole royal jewelry worth €88 million, and escaped within minutes.
On Thursday, the ‘Treasure of Villena’ was stolen in the Spanish city of Villena. This Bronze Age gold collection is considered one of the most significant ancient gold collections in Europe.
Earlier this month, four important paintings by the 15th-century artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Messina, Sicily. The incident occurred on a national holiday.
Two days prior, Italian police announced the recovery of three paintings by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, and Henri Matisse. These works had been stolen earlier this year from a private museum near Parma.
A report by Europol released this month indicates that thefts from European museums are becoming increasingly violent. Thieves are resorting to the use of firearms and assaulting museum staff. In some instances, they employ sledgehammers, axes, or even explosives to breach their targets.
