Two men have been suspected of stealing a valuable necklace from a museum in Vienna and the Austrian police have released images of them after the Egyptian royal family’s necklace was stolen from the museum.
The necklace was part of an exhibition of jewellery in the Museum of Applied Arts, reports The Guardian.
Police say the two suspects bought tickets to the museum and smashed the glass display case with a hammer before they took off with the necklace.
Other visitors were there at the time of the theft, but there were no injuries reported, police said. Police have asked the public for information about the suspects. After the robbery, the police searched the middle of the city and employed sniffer dogs to track the men.
Investigators believe the robbery could have been part of an organised criminal group.
The necklace had been in an exhibition of Van Cleef & Arpels jewellery, celebrating 120 years of the jewellery house. There are over 300 items on display.
The necklace was worn by Queen Nazli of Egypt at her daughter Princess Fawzia’s wedding to the future Shah of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi in 1939, according to the exhibition documents.
The platinum necklace is made of 673 diamonds and is 200 carats. In 2015, it went on sale at a Sotheby’s auction in New York for $4.3 million.
The museum has closed the exhibition in the wake of the theft and also aborted a planned guided visit. The show was to run until September 27.
The event follows a slew of major thefts at museums around Europe. The theft of museum artworks is becoming increasingly violent, with the thieves employing heavy hammers, axes and sometimes explosives, Europol recently cautioned.
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