In broad daylight and with faces uncovered: a diamond necklace worth millions was stolen in Vienna
The necklace, weighing 200 carats and set with 673 diamonds, previously belonged to the Egyptian royal family and was on loan to the city's Museum of Arts. Local police investigators believe the robbers were hired by a criminal gang. At this stage, there are no leads to locate them, even though they carried out the robbery in front of witnesses.
Austrian police have launched a manhunt for two suspects in the theft of a 200-carat necklace set with 673 diamonds. The piece previously belonged to the Egyptian royal family and was on loan to a museum in Vienna.
Authorities in the country released photos of the suspects captured on security cameras during the robbery at the Museum of Arts in Vienna. This follows a wave of daring robberies that have occurred in recent years at European cultural institutions. The most prominent of these was the robbery at the Louvre Museum in Paris last October.
The robbers purchased tickets to the exhibition where the necklace was displayed. Footage shows them smashing the glass case with a hammer during official visiting hours on Thursday afternoon before fleeing. The police statement said that "the suspects fled in an unknown direction." No one was injured, although several witnesses were in the room at the time.
Police officers were deployed throughout the city, accompanied by tracking dogs, in an attempt to locate the suspects. The "Kronen Zeitung," the most widely read newspaper in the country, reported that investigators believe the robbers were hired by a criminal gang to carry out the theft.
The necklace previously belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt, who wore it in 1939 at the wedding of her daughter Fawzia to the Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, who later became the Shah. In 2015, it was sold at a Sotheby's auction in New York for 4.3 million dollars.
The exhibition where the necklace was displayed included 200 unique and rare items from 120 years of activity of the Parisian jewelry house "Van Cleef & Arpels."
