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August 28, 2026

Friday, August 28, 2026 - ,,, No comments

From Villena to Vienna: Europe’s Museums Continue to be Under Siege

A royal diamond necklace has vanishes as 
Europe’s museum theft wave continues.

Yesterday, two men entered Vienna’s Museum für angewandte Kunst known as the MAK, during opening hours and smashed a display case with a hammer, before escaping on foot with a historic platinum and diamond necklace valued at approximately US$4 million.

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According to Austrian police, at around 14:00 yesterday, two suspects, viewable on CCTV footage,  bought tickets, and visited the exhibition "Glanzstücke", which opened in June at the Museum of Applied Arts in Vienna's city center.  While no one was injured during the theft, at least one of the accomplices is said to have been armed while the other carried a hammer used to break into the vitrine where the necklace was held.


The stolen necklace was originally commissioned as part of a considerable acquisition from Van Cleef and Arpels in 1938 for Egypt’s royal family and is closely associated with the 1939 marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt to Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, then Crown Prince of Iran.  The elaborate platinum jewel contains 673 round and baguette-cut white diamonds, weighing more than 200 carats. It was made for Queen Nazli of Egypt, the second wife of Fuad I, King of Egypt who wore it to the wedding. 

The necklace most recently sold at Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for US $4.282 million and formed part of the temporary exhibition at the MAK containing more than 300 works by the Jewellery design house Van Cleef & Arpels.  Its recognisable design and royal provenance would likely make it difficult to sell intact, as does its listing on Interpol's Works of Art database, but its construction also leaves it acutely vulnerable. The diamonds can be removed and dispersed, while the platinum setting could be melted, rapidly separating the raw materials from the history that gives the necklace its cultural significance.

This Vienna theft occurred on the same day that thieves stole almost all the gold objects from the Bronze Age Treasure of Villena in Spain.  It also follows the earlier summer thefts of approximately €4 million in jewellery from the Musée Lalique in France, the 2,500-year-old Vix gold torc from the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais, and more than 200 coins from the Museo de Albacete in Spain.

There is no evidence that these robberies were committed by related offenders or form part of a single coordinated campaign, but the frequency, in gold and jewel thefts from European museums points to a common and increasingly urgent vulnerability.  Gold, platinum, diamonds, coins, and jewellery combine high value with portability and can be dismantled, dispersed, or converted into anonymous commodities.

Austria's Criminal Police Office is currently investigating the case as a robbery.

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