A gaggle of thieves blew up a Dutch museum to steal a 2,400-year-old golden helmet – with fears they may soften down the priceless artefact.
The traditional Cotofenesti helmet was stolen early Saturday by 4 crooks who broke open the doorways on the Drents Museum in Assen, with grainy surveillance footage exhibiting them disposing of it and three different gold bracelets in simply minutes.
The traditional helmet is revered as one of many Romanian National Treasureswhich consultants consider will make it inconceivable to discover a purchaser, which means crooks will solely make cash from the gold it is constructed from.
“It is simply inexcusable. The entire world is aware of it,” stated Dutch artwork professional Artur Brandt.
“So that they in all probability went for the gold – I nearly dare not get the phrases out – melting it down,” he stated.
The stolen Cotofenesti helmet and accompanying bracelets had been placed on show on the Dutch museum for a six-month keep as Heist left Romanian officials Shaken on the obvious breach of belief by the museum’s failure to safe such objects of cultural significance.
“Even in our most pessimistic goals, we would not have believed it potential,” says Ernest Oberlander-Tarnovianu, director of Romania’s Nationwide Historical past Museum.
Romanian Justice Minister Radu Marinescu stated the impression amounted to a “crime in opposition to our nation”, urging officers to deal with the restoration of the artifacts as an “absolute precedence”.
The princely helmet, which dates again to 450 and so forth. N. E., was first found by a baby in a small Romanian village in 1927, and the artifact was initially used as a toy and rooster pot earlier than officers had been set on the historic discover.
Consultants say the helmet is a relic of the traditional civilization of Dacia, depicting a number of mythological creatures and a person holding a dagger showing to sacrifice a ram.
Harry Tupan, director of the Dutch museum, described the theft as a “darkish day on the bottom” after the explosion used within the heist left the constructing.
Investigators stated the thieves broke in round 3:45 a.m. Saturday, with grainy safety footage capturing three of the suspects ransacking the museum in a matter of minutes.
Police had been flagged round a suspicious automobile within the space half-hour later, with the automobile discovered burnt to a crisp, suggesting the thieves had been doing all the pieces they may to cowl their tracks.
Dutch police are at present investigating HEIST alongside Interpol, the police group that covers 196 member nations.
With submit wires
