Newsletters
Two men stole a platinum necklace set with 673 diamonds from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts on Thursday after entering as ordinary visitors, buying tickets and smashing a display case, Austrian media and police said.
The necklace, weighing more than 200 carats in total, was commissioned for Egypt’s former royal family and worn by Queen Nazli in 1939 at the wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to then-Iranian Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became shah.
The piece sold for nearly $4.3 million at a New York auction in 2015, according to Sotheby’s.
The two suspects entered the museum at around 2:00 p.m. local time, did not wear masks and were clearly captured on surveillance cameras, police said.
They smashed the display case with a hammer and fled with the necklace in an unknown direction. Several witnesses were present, and authorities believe the suspects knew which item they intended to steal.
Police described both men as 170 to 175 centimeters (5.58 to 5.74 feet) tall, with slim builds, dark hair and dark beards. They were reportedly wearing black outer clothing and dark sneakers with white soles.
Vienna police released photographs and descriptions as part of an ongoing manhunt, while the Federal Criminal Police Office’s cultural heritage investigation unit joined the inquiry. No one was injured.
The necklace was part of the museum’s “Glanzstücke,” or “Masterpieces,” exhibition devoted largely to French luxury jewelry house Van Cleef & Arpels.
The exhibition, which opened in June and was scheduled to run until Sept. 27, includes around 500 objects, with more than 300 pieces from Van Cleef & Arpels and over 200 from the museum’s collection.
Van Cleef & Arpels has described the stolen necklace as a “triumph of white jewellery.”
The museum will remain open, but the exhibition has been temporarily closed following the theft.
The Vienna robbery comes amid a series of high-profile museum thefts in Europe, including jewelry stolen from the Louvre in Paris, gold objects taken from the Treasure of Villena in Spain and Renaissance works stolen from a museum in Sicily.
Italian police also recently recovered works by Renoir, Cezanne and Matisse worth more than $10.4 million that had been stolen near Parma.
Set as preferred source
Set as preferred source
4 min read
