Several golden archaeological masterpieces from Romania have been stolen from a Dutch museum.
On January 25, the art thieves used dynamite to break through a reinforced concrete wall of the Drents Museum in in the city of Assen, damaging other buildings in the neighbourhood.
Priceless Romanian works of art and national treasures were stolen from the temporary show, titled Dacia – Empire of gold and silver.
The star exhibit was the Golden Helmet of Coțofenești, a well-preserved pure gold Geto-Dacian helmet from the 5th Century BC, weighing almost 1kg, was taken.
Alongside that, three golden bracelets from the Sarmizegetusa region in Romania were also stolen by the robbers.
Breaking: Last night thieves entered the Drents Museum in Assen, The Netherlands, with the use of explosives. They got away with precious objects from the ehibition 'Dacia – Realm of Gold and Silver'. The display features treasures from the ancient kingdom of Dacia. What a horror pic.twitter.com/VITNVSWlCs
— Arthur Brand (art detective) (@brand_arthur) January 25, 2025
In Romania, the news was treated as a national disaster. Ministries from the Netherlands and Romania were said to be outraged and criminal cases have been opened in both countries.
Ernest Oberländer Târnoveanu, the general director of the National Museum of Romanian History, told Romanian news outlet Digi24 that the stolen pieces were “extremely valuable and are part of Romania’s Dacian treasure”.
“We discussed organising an exhibition at the museum in the Netherlands, being the oldest and most important in the country. The pieces were going to return to our country, tomorrow the exhibition was going to close and my colleagues were going to the Netherlands to collect the exhibition and bring it back,” he said.
Târnoveanu stressed that all the art was insured but, given the extremely high symbolic value, the loss for Romania was deeply felt.
He noted that the museum had excellent security. “It is a new building, equipped with all the means of protection, video and audio surveillance and motion sensors. Moreover, the security system had been strengthened given the exhibition.”
Harry Tupan, director of the Drents Museum, said: “This is a black day for the Drents Museum in Assen and the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest.
“We are intensely shocked by the events last night at the museum. In its 170-year existence there has never been such a major incident.”
The collection included 673 gold and silver Dacian artefacts, made by the ancient inhabitants of present-day Romania and its surrounding regions between 2000 BC and 300 AD.
It contained pieces from at least 15 different museums throughout Romania from both the Bronze age and the Iron Age
Local police discovered a burning car beneath a viaduct just half an hour after the explosion at the museum, which took place at 3:45am. Authorities said they suspected a connection between the vehicle and the robbery.
At the time of writing, no arrests had been made.
A few hours after the robbery, the Dutch police publicly shared camera share images of potential suspects.
The thieves were believed to have been in out of the building around two minutes.
We publiceren beelden van een aantal verdachten van het veroorzaken van een explosie en inbraak in het Drents Museum in Assen. Op de beelden is te zien hoe de verdachten een buitendeur openen, waarna er een explosie plaatsvindt. Meer info: https://t.co/qDfmahqER6 pic.twitter.com/wrgW3vEZ2p
— Politie Drenthe (@POL_Drenthe) January 25, 2025
Dutch police have asked museum visitors if they saw anything suspicious in the building in the past few days, for example individuals “hanging around for a long time” near the masterpieces.
They are also checking to see if the stolen art objects were being offered among the criminal circles.
It is feared, though, the robbers might simply melt the gold for its value in weight.
Any information regarding the crime can be reported anonymously to the police.
