According to early reports, the crime began around 4:45 p.m. Two men entered the museum located at 24 Chemin du Bois-de-Vaux after purchasing tickets at the entrance. They moved among the exhibits without drawing attention, blending in with the remaining visitors. Shortly before the museum’s scheduled closing time of 6:00 p.m., and after the last visitors had departed for the evening, the men are alleged assaulted and overpowered the 64 year old security guard. The guard was assaulted and restrained, leaving the perpetrators free to break open a display case containing a selection of Roman gold coins.

The city of Lausanne has confirmed that the items stolen were gold coins from the museum’s celebrated Maladière Treasure, also known as the Vidy Treasure. This coin hoard, made up of roughly seventy gold aurei, dates from the reign of Emperor Tiberius, i.e., from about 14 to 37 CE.  They were uncovered during archaeological exploration work at the site of the ancient city of Lousonna in the 1930s, just steps away from the Roman museum.

Shortly after 144 AD, this hoard of coins, then one of the ten largest known in the Roman world, was buried in Lousonna in two separate hiding places inside the same house and span more than a century of Roman numismatic history. Each batch contained 35 gold coins: the first grouping minted between 72 and 143 CE,  and the second between 100 and 144 CE.  The variety represented in the Vidy Treasure makes it an invaluable resource for studying the monetary and cultural life of theRoman settlement in Switzerland near Lake Geneva.

The museum has not yet released a full list of the missing items and an active investigation is underway. Authorities are reviewing security footage and interviewing staff in an effort to identify the two thieves, while curators begin the difficult process of assessing which pieces have been taken. 

Since 2017, across Europe and beyond, museums have seen a rise in gold and jewellery related thefts in recent years, a trend driven largely by the intrinsic value and portability of the material itself. Unlike most art objects, which require a buyer willing to traffic in identifiable cultural property, gold artefacts such as coins offer thieves an immediate and anonymous payout: they can be melted down, stripped of identifying features, and sold as raw bullion within hours. This makes ancient coins, and other gold objects particularly attractive targets, especially for opportunistic criminal groups who view cultural heritage not for its historical significance but for its liquidation potential. 

With 70 coins in all, this treasure represents one avoirdupois pound of gold or slightly more than 14 troy ounces.  At the time of this hoard's burial, the gold coins were worth about 7,000 sesterces, the equivalent of 7 years’ salary for a legionary living in  that period.  At the time this blog article was written the current spot price for gold in Switzerland was approximately CHF 3,286.57 per troy ounce, meaning that melted down these historic finds would be worth approximately CHF 47,922. 

While the loss of any part of the Maladière Treasure represents a significant blow, both to the museum’s collection and to the wider field of Roman archaeology,  museums need to start treating their gold collections as high-risk holdings, balancing public access with heightened security to protect objects that are uniquely vulnerable to fast, irreversible destruction.