Museum Heist: Irreplaceable Ancient Gold Coins Worth $1.66 Million Are Stolen - The Scene

Organized crime is suspected to be responsible for the theft of the coins dating back to 100 B.C. from a museum in southern Germany.

A report by Yahoo News says, “A huge horde of ancient gold coins dating back to around 100 B.C. has been stolen from a museum in southern Germany. Bavarian state police said it was stolen early Tuesday from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, 60 kilometers (37 miles) north of Munich. The 483 coins were discovered in 1999 during excavations of an ancient settlement in Manchning and are considered the biggest trove of Celtic gold found in the 20th century.”

“The loss of the Celtic treasure is a disaster,” it quoted Bavaria’s Minister of Science and Arts, Markus Blume, saying. “As a testament to our history, the gold coins are irreplaceable.”

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The report adds, “Officials suspect organised crime was behind the theft of the coins, which have an estimated market value of €1.6 million ($1.66 million).”

“There is definitely a market for such coins,” explains Dr. Rupert Gebhard, Director of Archaeological State Collection. For these coins, that is €3000 to €4000 per piece, so that one comes to a total trade price of €1.6 million.”

In related news by CNN: “Bavaria’s minister for science and art, Markus Blume, described Tuesday’s theft as a “catastrophe.” 

“Everything must be done to quickly solve the crime and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law,” he wrote on Twitter. “One thing is clear: Whoever steals art damages our culture.” 

CNN further states: “There have been several high-profile heists at German museums in recent years, most notably at Dresden’s historic Green Vault, where masked thieves grabbed 21 priceless diamond-studded artifacts worth at least 113 million euros ($117 million) in 2019. Two years earlier, a huge gold coin worth around 3.7 million euros ($3.8 million) was taken in the middle of the night from a museum in the capital, Berlin.”

Banner photo via RODNAE Productions from Pexels.

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