Thieves snatch $5.1m diamond necklace from Vienna museum

A historic diamond necklace originally designed for the Egyptian royal family and valued at about US$4 million (S$5.1 million) was stolen from a major Vienna museum, triggering a police manhunt for the two alleged thieves. The men smashed a display case in Vienna’s Museum of Applied Arts during opening hours on Aug 27 and fled on foot, according to a police statement. Their target was a Van Cleef & Arpels necklace designed for an Egyptian royal wedding in 1939. Made for the marriage of Princess Fawzia of Egypt and the Crown Prince of Iran, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Sotheby’s assessed its value at between US$3.6 and US$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 (S$73.9 million), was recovered three years later. The heist is poised to refocus attention on security protocols at museums, following the the theft of about US$100 million worth of jewels from the Louvre, conducted in broad daylight in 2025. That led to the replacement of the Paris-based museum’s director. Thieves also made off this week with a collection of 3,000-year-old gold pieces in a museum in the Spanish town of Villena. The thieves behind Aug 27’s caper 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 sneakers.Curated in conjunction with the Parisian luxury brand, the exhibition at the museum on Vienna’s famous Ringstrasse, “Prime Pieces: Van Cleef & Arpels High Jewelry x Masterpieces from the MAK Collection,” was scheduled to run until Sept 27.The museum said in a statement that visitors can still see its collection “with the exception of the affected exhibition”. BLOOMBERG