Two armed burglars broke into the Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in Vienna on Thursday afternoon, smashed a glass display case, and walked out with a platinum and diamond necklace worth over $4m.
The necklace, a 200‑carat heirloom designed for the former Egyptian royal family, was on show as part of a Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition. It had previously been worn by Queen Nazli for the 1939 marriage of her daughter to the future Shah of Iran.
Policemen released CCTV footage that captured the suspects in real time – a short, alarm‑raising clip that shows them forcefully removing the necklace and heading toward the Vienna Stadtpark. One of the men is believed to have carried a real firearm.
MAK director Lilli Hollein said the museum had prepored extensive security measures with the jewellery house and that all protocols were followed calmly amid the “armed incident.” She noted that no one was injured.
“We are conducting a full forensic analysis and enlisting police dogs in Vienna and Lower Austria,” the police said. They are also urging the public to come forward with any information.
The Vienna robbery coincides with a series of dramatic thefts in European museums – from Bronze Age artefacts in Spain to Renaissance canvases in Sicily, and even a masked raid in Paris’s Louvre. Europol has warned that museum thefts are “becoming increasingly aggressive” and may involve new organized networks.
While the MAK exhibition has reopened without the necklace, the jewel remains a top priority for retrieval and demonstrates the pressing need to reassess security at cultural institutions worldwide. "The theft of this highly valuable piece has hit us hard," Hollein said. The hunt is now on to recover the necklace and bring the attackers to justice.
