Thieves stole Bronze Age gold artifacts from a museum in Villena, Spain, in just four minutes. The incident has shocked local authorities. According to a spokesman for the town council, the thieves' actions were "super fast and super professional."
The robbery began with a diversion. Around 05:15 local time, alarms went off at the local sports centre, sending police there first. The museum's alarm then went off around 05:20. The thieves took just four minutes to sweep through the museum and leave the building before officers arrived.
The Mayor of Villena, Fulgencio Cerdán, said the thieves "stole a large part of the treasure," specifically all the gold. The museum's collection, which dates back to around 1,000 BC, consists mainly of gold items, but also includes pieces of silver, iron, and amber. It comprises more than 60 Bronze Age objects, including 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles, and other miscellaneous pieces.
"The town is devastated," Cerdán said. "They've taken most of the treasure." "I'm even trembling. The truth is that for those of us from Villena, this destroys us. It's part of our heritage, of our wealth," the mayor added. The collection was discovered in 1963 by archaeologist José María Soler in a vessel sunk in a dried-out riverbed in Villena.
The Villena council spokesman insisted there had been "no failure" by the museum. "All security systems were activated," he said.
The past year has seen a series of raids on European museums. In October 2025, thieves broke into the Louvre museum in Paris in broad daylight, stealing jewellery worth $102 million before escaping on scooters, in a heist that took about eight minutes.
Last week, four works "of extraordinary value" by Renaissance artist Antonello da Messina were stolen from a museum in Sicily, Italy. Earlier this month, Italian police said they had recovered paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse worth over $10.4 million which were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.