Two men walked into Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) bought regular tickets then smashed a glass display case with a hammer and fled with a 200-carat platinum necklace studded with 673 diamonds. The daring daylight heist occurred Thursday afternoon during normal opening hours with several visitors present.
Police released security camera images of the unmasked suspects and deployed tracking dogs across the city though the men escaped in an unknown direction. Investigators suspect the theft may have been a "contract job" carried out for a criminal gang.
The stolen necklace, created by French jewellers Van Cleef & Arpels, once belonged to Egyptian Queen Consort Nazli who wore it at her daughter's 1939 wedding to Iran's future shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. Sotheby's sold the piece in 2015 for $4.3 million. It was part of an exhibition featuring around 300 rare items marking Van Cleef & Arpels' 120-year history also running since June and scheduled to close September 27.
While the museum initially said the exhibition would stay closed indefinitely, the affected wing reopened just hours later with the damaged display case covered but no public explanation posted.
The Vienna theft adds to a troubling pattern of high-profile museum heists across Europe. In October, thieves stole $102 million worth of jewels from the Louvre in under eight minutes. This week alone the Bronze Age gold art efacts were stolen from Spain's Treasure of Villena collection and four Renaissance paintings vanished from a museum in Sicily.
Europol has warned that such robberies are becoming increasingly violent, with criminals using sledgehammers, weapons and even explosives to steal valuable art and jewellery from poorly secured institutions.
