BRUSSELS — The prize on this artwork heist is value greater than its gold. To Romania, the traditional helmet is a priceless cultural heirloom. To the Netherlands, it’s a stolen artifact that authorities hope to retrieve to uphold a fame for protected museums.
The intricate golden Cotofenesti helmet dates again some 2,500 years and is one Romania’s most revered nationwide treasures from the Dacia civilization. It was on show on the small Drents Museum in japanese Netherlands on the final weekend of a 6-month stint when thieves nabbed it.
The theft of the helmet and three golden wristbands additionally on show despatched shockwaves by the artwork world, and devastated Romanian authorities who thought they had been loaning the gadgets to a nation the place safety for museums was paramount.
“It’s a pitch darkish day for us,” museum director Harry Tupan mentioned.
Investigators had discovered few clues by late Monday past a burnt-out automobile near the museum, indicating the thieves wished to cowl their tracks.
Romanian President Klaus Iohannis mentioned the artifacts have “distinctive cultural and historic significance” for Romanian heritage and identification, and that their disappearance had “a powerful emotional and symbolic impression on society.”
It was a heist that “even in our most pessimistic goals, we might not have believed attainable,” mentioned the director of Romania’s Nationwide Historical past Museum, Ernest Oberlander-Tarnoveanu.
Romanian Justice Minister Radu Marinescu known as the incident a “crime towards our state” and mentioned recovering the artifacts “is an absolute precedence.”
The helmet’s fame and dramatic studded look means it might by no means simply be bought, elevating fears the thieves had been after the gold itself.
“It’s merely unsellable. The entire world is aware of it. So, they possible went for the gold to — I nearly dare not utter the phrases — soften it,” mentioned Dutch artwork knowledgeable Arthur Model.
That would cut back the treasure to a fraction of its cultural and historic worth. Gold stands at about 85,000 euros ($89,000) per kilo and the helmet is estimated to weigh barely lower than that.
“It isn’t solely in regards to the gold. It’s in regards to the cultural heritage,” Tupan mentioned. “And it has been taken in an odd method and hurts extremely.”
On grainy safety video distributed by police, three persons are seen opening a museum door with an enormous crowbar, after which an explosion is seen. Then they should have made off with the loot in a matter of minutes.
“Safety, as it’s supposed it’s, was so far as we all know, completely accurately,” Tupan mentioned. “And now, it’s a small battlefield. There may be nothing else for us to do however sit and wait and see what’s going to occur.”
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McGrath reported from Bucharest. Aleks Furtula contributed from Arnhem, Netherlands
