Berlin-based Muslim Gang Steals Hoard of Ancient Celtic Gold?

   

Celtic coin discovery in Manching, Germany.

Hundreds of rare gold coins worth over $1.6 million were stolen from a Bavarian museum in a span of just nine minutes, Bavaria’s State Police announced on Wednesday.

The coins, unearthed during a 1999 archaeological dig near Manching, Bavaria, Germany, from what is considered the largest discovery of Celtic gold in the 20th century, were stolen from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching. The coins stolen were worth $1.6 million, said Rupert Gebhard, who heads the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich.

Dating back to 100 BCE, they showcase how the Celtic settlement at Manching had links across Europe, Gebhard said. Experts fear that, because stolen items are hard to sell in the public market, the coins will likely be melted down and sold for gold value – approximately 250,000 Euros, Gebhard added. 

“(It) would be a total loss for us,” Gebhart added. Markus Blume, who serves as Bavaria's Minister for Science and Art, said the coins provided a glimpse into the daily lives of Bavarian residents over 2,000 years ago.

A daring robbery in just nine minutes

Deputy head of Bavaria’s State Criminal Police Guido Limmer said thieves cut the wires at a telecommunications hub about 1 km. from the museum, which disabled power in the area. In a nine-minute span, the thieves smashed display showcases and stole the entirety of Manching’s 1999 excavation. 

“It’s clear that you don’t simply march into a museum and take this treasure with you. It’s highly secured and as such there’s a suspicion that we’re rather dealing with a case of organized crime.”

Markus Blume

“It’s clear that you don’t simply march into a museum and take this treasure with you,” Blume told public broadcaster BR. “It’s highly secured and as such there’s a suspicion that we’re rather dealing with a case of organized crime.”

Further, Limmer linked the robbery to prominent museum robberies from the past few years such as the 2019 robbery of Dresden’s Green Vault Museum, where up to $1 billion worth of diamonds, art and jewels was stolen.

Thieves who broke into a southern German museum and stole hundreds of ancient gold coins got in and out in nine minutes without raising the alarm, officials said Wednesday, in a further sign that the heist was the work of organized criminals.

Police have launched an international hunt for the thieves and their loot, consisting of 483 Celtic coins and a lump of unworked gold that were discovered during an archeological dig near the present-day town of Manching in 1999.

Emergency forces of the riot police search the surroundings of the Celtic Roman Museum for possible traces on November 25, 2022, Bavaria, Manching, after the theft of Celtic gold treasure from the museum.LENNART PREISS/PICTURE ALLIANCE VIA GETTY IMAGES

Guido Limmer, the deputy head of Bavaria's State Criminal Police Office, described how at 1:17 a.m. on Tuesday cables were cut at a telecoms hub less than a mile from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, knocking out communications networks in the region.

Mayor Herbert Nerb told German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung: "They cut off the whole of Manching."

Security systems at the museum recorded that a door was pried open at 1:26 a.m. and then how the thieves left again at 1:35 a.m., Limmer said. It was in those nine minutes that the culprits must have smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure.

Officials acknowledged, however, that there was no guard at the museum overnight.

An alarm system was deemed to provide sufficient security, said Rupert Gebhard, who heads the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich.

Gebhard said the hoard was of great value both for the local community in Manching and for archaeologists across Europe.

The bowl-shaped coins, dating back to about 100 B.C., were made from Bohemian river gold and show how the Celtic settlement at Manching had links across Europe, he said.

Gebhard said the size of the trove suggested it might have been "the war chest of a tribal chief." It was found inside a sack buried beneath building foundations, and was the biggest such discovery made during regular archaeological excavations in Germany in the 20th century.

Limmer, the deputy police chief, said Interpol and Europol have already been alerted to the coins' theft and a 20-strong special investigations unit, codenamed 'Oppidum' after the Latin term for a Celtic settlement, has been established to track down the culprits.

Limmer said there were "parallels" between the heist in Manching and the theft of a large gold coin in Berlin as well as  $1 billion in jewels in Dresden -- what may have been the biggest jewel heist in history. Both have been blamed on a Berlin-based crime family.

The robbery took place Tuesday night at the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, around 40 miles north of Munich.

Dating back to around 100 BC, the gold coins were discovered in 1999 at the site of a large Celtic settlement nearby. The artifacts weigh a combined 4 kilograms (8.8 pounds), representing the largest hoard of Celtic gold discovered in the 20th century, and are worth "several million" euros, police said.

According to a police statement, the perpetrators gained access to an exhibition room where the items were on show, before breaking open a display case containing 483 coins.

German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung reported that phone and internet services in the area were disrupted at the time of the heist, with local mayor Herbert Nerb telling the outlet: "They cut off the whole of Manching." 

Once one of central Europe's largest Celtic settlements, the Oppidum of Manching was occupied from around 200 BC. It later grew into a large city-like settlement surrounded by walls made from timber and stone.

Excavation work carried out after World War II uncovered evidence of planned streets, rows of buildings and trade facilitated by coins minted at the site. According to the museum, only about 7% of the settlement has been excavated so far.

Bavaria's minister for science and art, Markus Blume, described Tuesday's theft as a "catastrophe."

"Everything must be done to quickly solve the crime and punish the perpetrators to the full extent of the law," he wrote on Twitter. "One thing is clear: Whoever steals art damages our culture."

There have been several high-profile heists at German museums in recent years, most notably at Dresden's historic Green Vault, where masked thieves grabbed 21 priceless diamond-studded artifacts worth at least 113 million euros ($117 million) in 2019. Two years earlier, a huge gold coin worth around 3.7 million euros ($3.8 million) was taken in the middle of the night from a museum in the capital, Berlin.

Officials suspect organised crime to be behind the coin robbery, and police alluded to "possible parallels" with previous heists.

In 2017, a hefty gold coin weighing 100kg was snatched from a Berlin museum. Two years later, thieves took 21 pieces of jewellery and other valuables in a dramatic diamond heist at Dresden's Green Vault museum that was caught on CCTV.

To conduct the heist, the thieves cut off the telephone service and internet connection for all of Manching.

Herbert Nerb, the mayor of Manching, told the German-language publication Suddeutsche Zeitung, “The museum is actually a high-security location. But all the connections to the police were severed.”

Guido Limmer, the deputy head of Bavaria's State Criminal Police Office, described how at 1:17 a.m. (0017 GMT) on Tuesday cables were cut at a telecoms hub about one kilometer (less than a mile) from the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching, knocking out communications networks in the region.

Security systems at the museum recorded that a door was pried open at 1:26 a.m. and then how the thieves left again at 1:35 a.m., Limmer said. It was in those nine minutes that the culprits must have smashed open a display cabinet and scooped out the treasure.

Limmer said there were “parallels” between the heist in Manching and the theft of priceless jewels in Dresden and a large gold coin in Berlin in recent years. Both have been blamed on a Berlin-based crime family.

Officials acknowledged, however, that there was no guard at the museum overnight.

An alarm system was deemed to provide sufficient security, said Rupert Gebhard, who heads the Bavarian State Archaeological Collection in Munich.

Local officials determined that phone and internet cables had been cut at a telecommunications hub less than a mile away and the entire region had experienced a disruption prior to the break in.

The police, under the mistaken belief that local banks were the primary target, sent patrol cars to nearby banks when they were alerted that the telecommunications cable had been dismantled and that it was causing disruption to 1,300 local connections.

A notorious Berlin family of Muslim criminals is suspected to be behind the burglary,

The thieves showed “incredible criminal energy.”