Austrian police have launched a search for two men accused of stealing a platinum necklace containing 673 diamonds from a museum in Vienna.
The necklace, which weighs about 200 carats reportedly once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt, was on loan to the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) as part of an exhibition featuring historic jewellery associated with French luxury jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels.
According to police, the two suspects entered the museum after purchasing tickets to the exhibition before allegedly smashing a glass display case with a hammer and fleeing with the necklace during opening hours on Thursday afternoon.
Police have released images of the suspects captured by surveillance cameras and appealed to members of the public for information that could assist with their identification and arrest.
“The perpetrators fled with the jewellery in an unknown direction,” police said.
Officers subsequently searched parts of central Vienna and deployed a tracking dog in an attempt to establish the suspects’ escape route.
Austrian newspaper Kronen reported that investigators suspect the theft may have been carried out as a “contract job” for a criminal gang.
The stolen necklace is believed to have significant historical value. Museum records indicate that it once belonged to Queen Consort Nazli of Egypt, who reportedly wore it at the 1939 wedding of her daughter, Princess Fawzia, to Iran’s then Crown Prince Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became Shah of Iran.
The necklace was sold by Sotheby’s in New York in 2015 for $4.3 million.
The jewellery was among more than 300 objects displayed in the MAK exhibition, which brought together pieces from the museum’s collection and the heritage collection of Van Cleef & Arpels, spanning roughly 120 years of the jewellery house’s history.
No injuries were reported in the incident, although several visitors were reportedly in the exhibition room when the theft occurred.
Following the robbery, the museum cancelled a guided tour scheduled for Friday afternoon and temporarily closed the exhibition, which had been due to continue until September 27.
The incident comes amid a series of high-profile thefts targeting European museums and cultural institutions.
Also on Thursday, thieves reportedly raided the Treasure of Villena, a collection of Bronze Age gold artefacts in Spain. Earlier in August, four works by 15th-century Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina were reportedly stolen from a museum in Messina, Sicily.
Italian authorities have also recently recovered three paintings by Paul Cézanne, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Henri Matisse that had been stolen from a private museum near Parma.
A recent Europol report has warned that museum robberies in Europe are becoming increasingly violent, with criminals using heavy tools and weapons to target valuable cultural artefacts.
