A brazen theft took place on Thursday morning at the museum in the town of Villena, Spain – most of the Bronze Age gold artifact collection, known as the Villena treasure, was stolen. This find is considered one of the most important prehistoric treasures in Europe.
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The museum alarm went off around 5:20 a.m. The thieves left the building just four minutes later, around 5:24 a.m., reported the Villena city council.
“The operation was very fast and very professional,” said a city council representative.
The operation was very fast and very professional.
“They stole most of the treasure,” Villena mayor Fulgencio Cerdán told journalists. According to him, only a few of the 66 exhibits remain – three silver vessels, a bracelet, and part of the so-called Royal Scepter ornamentation.
“We are completely devastated, I am even shaking. For those of us from Villena, this is a huge blow. It is our heritage, our wealth,” said the mayor.
The treasure was found more than 60 years ago
The Villena treasure consists of 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three bottles, and other various artifacts dating back to around 1000 BCE.
The treasure was discovered in 1963 in Villena by archaeologist José María Soleris. The artifacts were hidden in a container buried in a dried-up riverbed. Soon the find became the main exhibit of a small museum in the Alicante province.
Since May 2024, the treasure has been displayed in a specially dedicated space in the new Villena museum, owned by the city council.
The collection interests scientists not only because of its age and abundance of gold. Some artifacts are made of silver, iron, amber, and a dark, lead-colored material coated with iron oxide.
A recent study published in the journal “Trabajos de Prehistoria” showed that some of these artifacts may have been made from very rare meteoritic iron.
The exact value of the treasure cannot be determined, but according to the mayor, the value of the gold alone is about 1.7 million euros.
Police investigate whether sabotage was created
As reported by Manuel Pineda, deputy representative of the Spanish government in Alicante province, the thieves arrived in several cars and are believed to have entered the museum through a window.
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The museum alarm went off, but city council representatives emphasized that there were no malfunctions in the security systems.
Officials are also investigating whether the theft was carefully planned. Shortly before the break-in, another alarm went off at the city sports center. Investigators do not rule out the possibility that this could have been a deliberately caused diversion to distract security services.
Mauro Hernández, archaeology professor at the University of Alicante and expert on the Villena treasure, said the theft was clearly premeditated.
“They had everything very well planned. They knew how to do it, how to act, and how to escape,” he told Cadena SER television.
European museums increasingly becoming targets for thieves
The theft of the Villena treasure occurred at a time when brazen cultural property thefts are increasing in Europe.
Last October, thieves broke into the Louvre in Paris in broad daylight. They escaped from the museum in less than eight minutes, taking jewelry worth 88 million euros.
Recently, museums in Italy have also been robbed. Last Sunday, the Italian Ministry of Culture reported the theft of four works by Renaissance painter Antonello da Messina from a museum in Sicily.
Just two days earlier, Italian police announced the recovery of paintings by Renoir, Cézanne, and Matisse, with a total value exceeding 10.4 million US dollars. They were stolen from the Magnani-Rocca Foundation museum near Parma.
In a report published this week, the European Union law enforcement agency Europol stated it has noticed a shift – criminals are increasingly choosing “violent and coercive methods.” According to the agency, this may indicate the emergence of new criminal networks specializing in the theft of specific cultural properties.
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Prepared based on The Guardian, the report also used AFP information.
