Necklace made for Egyptian queen stolen in Vienna heist

A necklace adorned with 673 diamonds that once belonged to Queen Nazli of Egypt has been stolen in a daytime heist at a Vienna museum. The latest in a spate jewel thefts at leading European museums has targeted a piece of Middle Eastern history. Designed by Van Cleef & Arpels, the diamond necklace was made for Queen Nazli of Egypt, who wore it to the 1939 wedding of her daughter Princess Fawzia and the then Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. The links to the Egyptian royal family saw the piece valued at about $4 million before it was stolen from the Museum of Applied Arts in the Austrian capital. The incident, which occurred on Thursday during exhibition opening hours, triggered a police manhunt for the thieves. Two men smashed a display case and fled on foot, according to a police statement. Sotheby’s assessed the necklace's value at between $3.6 million and $4.6 million at a 2015 auction. The piece is made of platinum and 673 diamonds with a total weight of 200 carats. It is the highest value art heist in Vienna since Benvenuto Cellini’s gold-and-enamel Saliera was stolen from the Kunsthistorisches Museum in 2003. That piece, valued at €50 million, was recovered three years later. The latest heist is set to refocus attention on security protocols at museums, following the theft of about $100 million worth of jewels from the Louvre in broad daylight last year. Several people have been arrested in that case, but the Paris museum’s director was forced to resign. Thieves also made off this week with a collection of 3,000-year-old gold pieces from a museum in the Spanish town of Villena. The mayor of Villena, Fulgencio Cerdan, told reporters that the thieves had left behind only “a handful” of the Bronze Age treasures. “We are totally devastated, I am still trembling,” he said. In 2022, German police recovered some of the treasures from the Green Vault royal collection in Dresden, which had an insurance value of €116 million when it was stolen in November 2019. In March 2017, Big Maple Leaf, a 100kg gold coin worth €3.75 million, was stolen from the Bode Museum in Berlin. Authorities believe the coin was melted down. The thieves behind Thursday’s theft in Vienna fled in an unknown direction, according to police. They were described as two slim men about 175cm tall, with dark hair and beards. CCTV images show both wearing black clothes and dark trainers. Europol, the EU's law enforcement agency, issued a warning this week that criminals are going after ancient artefacts made of gold and precious stones, which can be melted down or broken up and sold without leaving a trace. Europol's new report, titled Changing Tactics, Changing Targets: The Evolving Nature of Museum Heists, says the profile of the thieves is changing. Thefts from museums have traditionally been regarded as a “non-violent form of organised property crime, with perpetrators using tactics like reconnaissance and discreet execution”, the report said. But that appears to be shifting, with brute force replacing guile, said the Europol report, and modern robbers typically have a background in other types of crime. Curated in conjunction with the Parisian luxury brand, the exhibition at the museum on Vienna’s Ringstrasse, Prime Pieces: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewellery x Masterpieces from the MAK Collection had been scheduled to run until September 27. The museum said in a statement that visitors could still see its collection “with the exception of the affected exhibition”.

Necklace made for Egyptian queen stolen in Vienna heist

Daylight robbery of item worth millions is latest embarrassment for European museums

Manhunt under way

Signature exhibition