Thieves use explosives to steal gold ‘masterpieces’ from Dutch museum

Four old golden artifacts were stolen from the Dutch Museum in a night raid in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Thieves used explosives to detonate their way to the Drenz Museum in Ain, which was hosting an invaluable Roman jewelry exhibition and made of gold and silver.

They left with three Dachaian spiral bracelets and the central piece at the exhibition – a stunning Kotovinyceti helmet, which was manufactured nearly 2,500 years ago.

The Romanian Ministry of Culture promised to take all possible steps to restore the stolen pieces that were loaned to the Dutch Museum from Bucharest.

Harry Touban, director of the Drenits Museum, said that the employees were “very shocked” because of the robbery he described as the largest incident in the history of the museum that extended for 170 years.

The police were called to the scene after news of an explosion at 03:45 local time (04:45 GMT) on Saturday.

The officers conducted forensic investigations and reviewed surveillance cameras throughout the day.

The police are also investigating a burning car found on a nearby road, suspected that they may be linked to the process of robbery.

“The potential scenario is that the suspects moved to another car near the scene,” Dutch police statement said.

No one has been arrested, but the authorities suspect several people were involved. Police summoned the International Police Agency Interpol to help the investigation.

A statement issued by the museum said that four “ancient masterpieces” were seized, including the Kotovinyastte helmet, dating back to about 450 BC, and three old royal royal bracelets.

All the four stolen elements have a great cultural importance for Romania, as Kotovinyceti helmets a national treasure.

In the late 1990s, the treasure hunters extracted 24 bracelets from the same era and sold them abroad.

The Romanian state has worked for years to restore it from the collection of antiques in Austria, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.