Nearly five years after a daring heist saw millions of euros worth of jewelry stolen from the Green Vault museum in Dresden, Germany, the majority of the stolen items have been recovered and are now back on public display.
The 2019 heist involved the theft of over 4,300 diamonds, with an estimated value of more than 113 million euros ($124 million). The jewels, which are part of one of Europe’s most significant art collections, were stolen from the Green Vault, a historic museum located in the eastern German state of Saxony.
According to authorities, most of the stolen pieces have since been recovered, although some items, including an epaulette adorned with the Dresden White Diamond, remain missing.
Starting this week, visitors to the Green Vault can view the jewels in their original display locations. However, the items are being presented in the same condition in which they were recovered in December 2022, as they are still considered evidence in ongoing legal proceedings.
Marion Ackermann, the director general of Dresden State Museums, addressed the condition of the recovered pieces, saying, “There are certain things that perhaps absolute experts can see; we with the naked eye can actually barely see the damage. This damage is mainly due to the fact that they were either broken out during the crime or improperly stored by the perpetrators after the crime.”
Five men, all members of the same family, were convicted in May 2023 for their roles in the heist and have been sentenced to several years in prison.
Reflecting on the incident, Saxony Premier Michael Kretschmer stated, “We were shocked that it was actually possible, but we have drawn the necessary conclusions.” The heist was a harsh lesson in security for the museum, which had been regarded as one of the safest buildings in Europe prior to the theft.
The Dresden collection, which dates back to the 18th century, was originally assembled by Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and later King of Poland, who sought to outshine France’s King Louis XIV with ever more brilliant jewelry. The treasures, which survived Allied bombing raids during World War Two, were returned to Dresden by the Soviet Union in 1958 after being taken as war booty.
