Two Men Steal 200-Carat Necklace from Vienna Museum After Paying Admission
Two visitors entered Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts, smashed a display case and fled with a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace, prompting a police investigation.
Two men who bought tickets to Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) broke a glass display case with a hammer and stole a 200-carat platinum and diamond necklace, police said on Friday. Surveillance footage showed the suspects entering the museum without masks and leaving with the jewelry. > "They smashed a glass display case and fled with the jewelry in an unknown direction," a police statement read.
The necklace, a Van Cleef & Arpels piece featuring 673 stones, had been part of an exhibition on the French jewellers that began in June and was scheduled to run until September 27. The museum confirmed the theft but declined further comment while the investigation continues. Van Cleef & Arpels described the item on its website as a "triumph of white jewelry" but did not immediately respond to inquiries.
The robbery adds to a recent spate of high-profile museum thefts across Europe, including a 2023 Louvre heist, a raid on Spain's Treasure of Villena, and the loss of Renaissance works in Sicily. Authorities in Italy also reported the recovery of stolen paintings worth over $10 million from a museum near Parma earlier this month.