VIENNA: Two males purchased tickets to enter Vienna’s Museum of Utilized Arts (MAK) earlier than smashing a show case, grabbing a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace and strolling away, police mentioned Friday (Aug 28).
Austrian media mentioned the Van Cleef and Arpels necklace, with 673 treasured stones, was price a number of million {dollars}. It’s the newest in a sequence of high-profile heists to hit European museums.
Police mentioned the 2 males didn’t put on masks, paid to enter the museum and have been clearly seen on surveillance cameras in Thursday’s heist.
They “smashed a glass show case” with a hammer earlier than “fleeing with the jewelry in an unknown route,” mentioned a police assertion.
The MAK museum confirmed the theft however mentioned it could not remark whereas the investigation went forward.
The necklace had been a part of an exhibition dedicated to the French designers Van Cleef and Arpels. Some 500 items had been on show since June. The exhibition is scheduled to finish on September 27.
Regardless of the MAK asserting the exhibition would stay closed till additional discover, the wing the place the theft occurred reopened hours later. AFP noticed the smashed show case lined with a blue panel however no discover on it defined the theft.
