The video is grainy but threatening: three figures with hood, climbing one on the other to pull them on a heavy access door of the Drents museum – a museum of art and history in Assen, the Netherlands – and then an explosion and one Shades of Sparks in the Wee Wee Wee on Saturday.
At dawn, it had become clear that this was not a theft with amateur burglary. The Dutch police said that the explosion was part of an effort developed to break into the acclaimed museum and steal some of its treasures, including a precious helmet made of gold on loan from Romania.
“This is a dark day for the Drents Museum in Assen and the National History Museum of Romania in Bucharest,” said Harry Tupan, director of the Drents Museum. “We are intensely shocked by events last night at the museum. In its existence of 170 years, there has never been such a serious accident. “
Among the stolen artifacts there were three golden bracelets and the golden helmet of cotofenesti, an elaborate and solid -shaped headdress of the fifth century BC
He dates back to the ancient daci, who lived parts of the Balkan region. The helmet, which is well known in Romania and is believed that it has been used in ceremonies, depicts various scenes, including someone who sacrifices a lamb.
The helmet and many other golden artefacts were exhibited as part of an itinerant exhibition of the National History Museum of Romania and had been exhibited at the Drents Museum since July 2024.
While the authorities refused to attribute a monetary figure to the stolen goods, Romanian officials have defined their “incalculable” value to the culture of Romania.
Neither the representatives of the National History Museum nor could the officials of the Ministry of Romanian culture be immediately reached on Sunday.
The Dutch police claim to investigate a connection between the raid and a fire of the car nearby. The thieves, they said, most likely set a car before fleeing another.
A similar theft of art took place in November at the MPV gallery in Oisterwijk, in the Netherlands, when the thieves used a bomb to obtain entry into an art gallery and stole two prints by the American artist Andy Warhol.