$4 million diamond necklace stolen in daylight heist at Vienna museum
Two suspects stole a $4 million diamond-encrusted necklace from Vienna's Museum of Applied Arts in a brazen daylight robbery. The piece, once owned by Egyptian royalty, was part of a Van Cleef & Arpels exhibition, and police have launched an international manhunt.
Why it matters
The theft of high-value cultural artifacts highlights security vulnerabilities in public museums and the challenges of tracking stolen luxury items on the black market.
Two unmasked men stole a diamond-encrusted necklace worth more than $4 million from Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts (MAK) in a brazen daylight heist on Thursday, triggering a manhunt by Austrian police.The suspects posed as visitors at a jewellery exhibition before smashing open a glass display case with a hammer and fleeing on foot towards a nearby park. Police released CCTV images of the two men and said one of the suspects was believed to have been carrying a firearm. No one was injured in the incident, CNN reported.Necklace linked to Egyptian royaltyThe stolen platinum necklace, designed by French luxury jewellery house Van Cleef & Arpels for Egypt’s Queen Nazli in the 1930s, features 673 diamonds weighing more than 200 carats.
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