Two men stole a necklace decorated with more than 600 diamonds from the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in broad daylight after buying tickets to the exhibition where it was displayed. The incident occurred on Thursday afternoon. Police said the suspects smashed a glass display case and grabbed the platinum and diamond necklace, which is believed to be worth more than $4 million.
The necklace, designed for the former Egyptian royal family, was part of an exhibition on the jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels, due to run until September. This theft is the latest in a series of spectacular heists at European museums. Vienna police released CCTV images of the unmasked suspects and are appealing for public help. According to police, one of the perpetrators may have been carrying a real firearm. After seizing the necklace, they fled towards the Vienna Stadtpark, just south of the museum.
MAK's general director, Lilli Hollein, said the theft of a highly valuable piece of jewellery has hit them hard. She stated that security measures had been carefully planned with Van Cleef & Arpels, and that staff reacted calmly and followed procedures during the armed incident. Hollein added that MAK had reviewed its security ahead of the exhibition, particularly in light of recent incidents at major museums.
On the same day, a trove of prehistoric jewellery and artefacts was stolen from a Spanish museum. Earlier this month, four Renaissance paintings were taken from a museum in Sicily, and earlier in the year, three paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse worth millions of euros were stolen from a museum in Parma. These heists followed a brazen daylight raid on the Louvre in Paris. Europol said museum thefts were becoming increasingly aggressive, with a shift towards violent methods, possibly indicating new criminal networks.
The necklace stolen in Vienna was worn by Queen Nazli in 1939 for the marriage of her daughter Fawzia to the future Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Van Cleef & Arpels describes it as a "triumph of white jewellery". The diamonds weigh over 200 carats. At auction a decade ago, it was valued at $3.6-4.6 million. Police dog units have been deployed in Vienna and Lower Austria, while forensic experts analyse evidence and CCTV. The exhibition has reopened.