Thieves use explosives to steal gold “masterpieces” from the Dutch Museum

Four ancient gold artifacts were stolen by a Dutch museum in an attack overnight in the early hours of Saturday morning.

The thieves used explosives to blow their way at the Drents Museum in Assen, which hosted an exhibition of priceless Romanian jewelry made of gold and silver.

They left with three Dacian spiral bracelets and the central piece of the exhibit – a strikingly decorated Kotofenesty helmet, which was made almost 2500 years ago.

The Romanian Ministry of Culture has promised to take all possible steps to restore the stolen items that were allocated to the Dutch Museum from Bucharest.

The director of the Drins Museum Harry Tupan said the staff was “intensely shocked” by burglary, which he believes is the biggest incident in her 170-year history.

Police were called to the scene after explosion messages at 03:45 local time (04:45 GMT) on Saturday.

Employees conducted a forensic investigation and examined CCTV staff throughout the day.

Police are also investigating a burning vehicle found on a nearby road suspected that it may be involved in burglary.

“A possible scenario is that the suspects have switched to another vehicle near the fire,” a Dutch police statement said.

No arrests have been made, but the authorities suspect that many persons have participated. Police called on the global police agency Interpol to help the investigation.

A statement from the museum said that four “archeological masterpieces” were taken, including the Cotofenesti helmet, which dates back to about 450 BC, and three ancient Dacian royal bracelets.

All four stolen objects are of great cultural importance to Romania, with Kotofenesty’s helmet considered a national treasure.

In the late 1990s, 24 bracelets of the same era were dug by treasure hunters and sold abroad.

The Romanian state has been working for years to return them from collectors in Austria, Germany, France, the United Kingdom and the United States.