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Thieves steal priceless treasures from Dresden museum Treasures worth 'up to a billion euros' stolen from Dresden museum
(32 minutes later)
German police say criminals on run after raid at Green Vault inside city’s royal palace German police say thieves on the run after raid at historic Green Vault inside royal palace
A German state museum with one of the biggest collection of baroque treasures in Europe has been robbed, with losses reported of up to a billion euros. Thieves have broken into one of Europe’s largest collection of art treasures in the German city of Dresden and stolen objects worth up to one billion euros, police have said.
The Green Vault at Dresden Royal Palace, which is home to about 4,000 precious objects made of ivory, gold, silver and jewels, was broken into early Monday morning. The Grüne Gewölbe (or Green Vault) has been stripped of hundreds of artefacts, after the thieves reportedly started a fire in the early hours of Monday that led to a breakdown in the power supply and the failure of security alarms.
Police confirmed the break-in and said the thieves were on the run. Police are calling the break-in the largest art heist in postwar history.
Officials did not give an estimate but Bild reported that “antique jewellery worth around a billion euros has been stolen”. The Grüne Gewölbe’s most famous artefact is Augustus the Strong’s treasure chamber. It was not known whether it had been broken into.
The newspaper said the criminals had broken into the well-protected palace by attacking a nearby power distributor and climbing through a window. A police spokesman said on Monday morning: “We can confirm that there has been a break-in in the Grüne Gewölbe … the perpetrators are on the run.”
They then proceeded to target smaller items of jewellery, leaving larger, bulkier items behind, Bild reported, without citing sources. Police were due to give a press conference at 1pm local time when more information about which items had been seized, was due to be released.
The Green Vault is one of the oldest museums in Europe and was founded by Augustus the Strong, elector of Saxony in 1723. According to the tabloid Bild, the thieves appear to have targeted the jewellery collection in the gallery, entering the building via a small corner window.
One of 12 museums which make up the famous Dresden state art collections, the vault is split into a historic and a newer exhibition. Michael Kretschmer, the leader of Saxony, of which Dresden is the capital, said he was devastated by the losses. “Not only the gallery has been robbed, but also the Saxonians,” he said.
The historic section, which contains about three quarters of the museum’s treasures, was broken into. He was heading to the Grüne Gewölbe to assess the damage for himself, and did not know which treasures had been seized, he said. But he added: “The treasures one can find there, as well as in the Residence Palace, have been collected by the people of Saxony over many centuries and are hard-won treasures.
Its treasures include a 63.8cm figure of a Moor studded with emeralds and a 648-carat sapphire gifted by Tsar Peter I of Russia. “You cannot understand the history of our country, or the free state of Saxony without the Grüne Gewölbe and the state art collections of Saxony”.
The theft is the second high-profile heist in Germany in recent years, after a 100kg, 24-carat giant gold coin was stolen from Berlin’s Bode Museum in 2017. The Grüne Gewölbe alone consists of 10 rooms teeming with about 3,000 items of jewellery and other recognised masterpieces. The building was heavily damaged during the second world war but has been successfully restored, reopening to great international fanfare in 2006. It has been a tourist magnet since 1724 when it first opened to the public.