In a museum heist seemingly taken straight from the movie screen, thieves made off with a collection of ancient Celtic gold coins from the Celtic and Roman Museum in the Bavarian town of Manching. According to town police, the coins are estimated to be worth “several million Euros”.
Heist Museum Celtic gold coin theft dubbed ‘a complete disaster’
According to the New York Times, staff at the museum discovered the theft when they arrived for work the next morning. They were horrified to find a broken display case, empty of the museum’s most precious exhibit. 483 ancient Celtic gold coins, along with a gold nugget believed to be made from them, weighing nearly 8.82 pounds (4 kg) were missing. An official said the coins could be worth $1.7 million.
However, these coins are worth much more than their price tag suggests. “The loss of Celtic treasures is a disaster,” Markus Blume, Bavarian Minister of Science and Arts, said in The Guardian. “As a testament to our history, gold coins are irreplaceable.” Herbert Nerb, the mayor of Manching, added that the loss of such treasure was a “complete disaster” for the small Bavarian town, located about 64 kilometers north of Munich.
Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, Bavaria, where the museum robbery took place in Germany. (Heinrich Stürzl / CC BY-SA 2.5)
Manching opposition and the hoard of Celtic coins
Manching was once one of the largest Celtic settlements in Central Europe and was inhabited since around 200 BC, according to CNN. The oppidum, or fortified town, gradually developed into a city with protective walls of stone and wood.
Construction of a military airport in the 1930s caused extensive damage to the site, which was excavated after World War II. Excavations have revealed an ancient settlement with planned streets and rows of houses. There is also evidence of minting coins used to carry out transactions. To date, only 7% of this area has been excavated.
The bowl-shaped coins, dated to around 100 BC, were discovered in 1999 and are believed to be the largest treasure trove of ancient Celtic gold discovered in the 20th century. They show the site’s connection Celtic settlements across Europe.
Archaeologists have yet to provide a satisfactory explanation as to why so much gold was stored in one place and why this gold was stored in this particular location. The Associated Press reported that Rupert Gebhard, head of the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich, explained that the size of the gold hoard, found inside a sack buried under the foundations of buildings, suggested that it could be “a tribe’s war chest.” chief.”
The museum robbery was a professional job
The Guardian reported that local officials provided few details about the robbery but they pointed out that phone and Internet services had been disrupted. “They have cut off the whole of Manching,” the mayor said. “The museum is truly a highly secure location. But all contact with the police was severed.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times explained that police, mistakenly believing that local banks were the main targets, sent patrol cars to nearby banks when they were alerted that telecommunications cables had been damaged. dismantled and it is causing disruption to 1,300 local connections. .
Officials are certain this was a professionally planned museum robbery. “Experts are at work here,” Herbert Nerb emphasized in The Guardian. “It’s clear that you don’t simply walk into a museum and take this treasure with you,” Markus Blume explained in the Associated Press. “It was highly secure and therefore there was suspicion that we were dealing with a case of organized crime.” However, officials admitted that there was no one guarding the museum overnight and that the alarm system was considered adequate security. Obviously not!
A vault of Celtic gold coins was taken in a museum heist in Germany. (Thilo Parg / CC BY-SA 4.0 )
Officials hope to avoid “worst” outcome
In recent times, Germany has seen many museum thefts. In 2017, Berlin’s prestigious Bode Museum was robbed of one of its most valuable treasures, a gold coin called the Big Maple Leaf that is said to be the second largest gold coin in the world. The thieves rolled it out in a wheelbarrow and carted it away on the city’s elevated railway.
Then, in 2019, robbers attacked the Green Vault Museum at the Dresden Royal Palace and took 21 pieces of jewelry and other valuables, The Guardian reported. While a notorious crime family is suspected to be behind the theft, the loot has not been recovered to date. It consists of a sword with a diamond-encrusted hilt and a shoulder containing a 49-carat white diamond.
Authorities hope this time they will be more lucky and will recover the gold coins taken in the museum heist before the thieves have time to get rid of them. While the coins themselves are worth much more as historical artifacts worth “several million euros,” when melted down into gold they would cost 250,000 euros (about $260,000).
The gold coins themselves are also difficult to sell because they are very clearly recorded. As a result, the police have their work cut out and must act quickly to prevent what Gebhard of the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection calls the “worst” outcome, which is that the perpetrators of the museum heist will Melt stolen gold coins. “The worst option, a meltdown, would mean a complete loss,” Gebhard emphasized to the Associated Press.
