Three arrested in Germany over $1bn jewel heist
Police have arrested three people in Germany on suspicion of carrying out an audacious $1bn (£757m) jewel heist at a museum containing Europe’s largest treasure collection.
Thieves broke into the Gruenes Gewoelbe — or Green Vault — museum in Dresden last November, escaping with at least three sets of 18th century jewellery, including diamonds and rubies.
Police raided at least 18 apartments, garages and vehicles for the jewellery and other evidence including digital data, clothes and tools.
A total of 1,638 officers were involved in the operation, which mainly took part in Berlin’s southeastern Neukoelln district, with police warning of major traffic disruption throughout the day.
Three German people were arrested on suspicion of theft and arson and will appear before a judge later this morning, police said. The force said the arrests took place in different parts of the country.
Security camera footage shows two men breaking into the museum through a grilled window in the early hours of 25 November 2019. Police arrived on the scene five minutes after the alarm sounded, but the thieves escaped.
The stolen jewels were worth up to $1bn, local media reported at the time. The criminals are said to have set fire to a nearby electricity junction box, cutting the power supply to the whole area.
The museum was founded in the 18th century by Augustus the Strong, later King of Poland, who built up an ever more lavish collection of jewellery in a bid to rival Louis XIV of France, who was known as the Sun King.
One of its best-known treasures — the 41-carat Dresden Green Diamond — was away on loan to New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art at the time of the break-in.
The sprawling treasure collection survived the bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, only to be seized as war booty by the Soviet Union. It was returned to the museum in 1958.