Third century coins taken from a robbery involving ‘severed’ telephone and web connections in Manching, Bavaria
The thieves stole a treasure trove of Celtic coins worth millions of euros from a German museum after disrupting local phone and web connections.
Employees of the Manching museum learned on Tuesday that a “broken display case” and that the collection of 450 pieces had been stolen, local police told AFP.
Investigators did not provide additional main points about the cases surrounding the theft, but local officials noted an interruption in phone and services.
“They cut off the entire Canal,” Mayor Herbert Nerb told the Sueddeutsche Zeitung. “The museum is a high security place. But all ties with the police have been severed.
“The professionals were in the paintings here,” he added Nerb. La disappearance of the treasure was a “complete disaster” for the Bavarian city, he said.
The collection of gold coins has been one of the highlights of the Celtic and Roman Museum of Manching. Discovered in 1999, the coins date back to the third century B. C. and have a value of “several million euros,” according to police.
“The loss of the Celtic treasure is a disaster,” Bavarian Science and Arts Minister Markus Blume told dpa. “As a testament to our history, gold coins are irreplaceable. “
The coin theft is the latest in a series of high-profile museum robberies in Germany.
In another numismatic flight, the “Great Maple Leaf”, considered the largest gold coin of the moment in the world, was torn from the prestigious Bode Museum in Berlin in 2017.
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The thieves also took 21 pieces of jewelry and other valuables in a brazen evening raid on the Green Vault Museum at Dresden’s Royal Palace in November 2019.
Authorities say members of an infamous family ring committed the robbery. No trace remains of the jewelry, which includes a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulder piece comprising a 49-carat white diamond.
Insurance experts said Green Vault’s loot was €113. 8 million (£98. 6 million), with German media calling it the biggest art heist in fashion history.