A 2,500-year-old gold collar belonging to the Vix Treasure archaeological discover was stolen Friday in broad daylight from a French museum, in response to experiences in Le Parisien and France 3.
The thieves allegedly entered the Musée du Pays Châtillonnais – Trésor de Vix in Châtillon-sur-Seine, Burgundy, round 10:30 a.m. on July 24 by paying the admission payment, appearing as common guests to the museum. Dijon prosecutor Olivier Caracotch stated in a press release to Le Parisien that the thieves smashed the show case holding the gold collar, referred to as a torque, earlier than fleeing the museum via the principle entrance.
Caracotch added that his workplace has opened an investigation for organized crime and that the Juridiction interrégionale spécialisée (JIRS) in Nancy will help “given this classification, the character of the details, and the nice complexity of the process.”
Jérémie Brigand, the mayor of Châtillon-sur-Seine and president of Communauté de Communes du Pays Châtillonnais, stated in a press release, in response to Le Parisien, that the museum had confronted “two earlier failed nighttime housebreaking makes an attempt” prior to now eight months. The museum stated that it had upped its safety consequently, spending some €150,000 ($171,000) on new safety cameras, movement detectors, and door detectors, per the France 3 report.
“Regardless of these measures, the perpetrators demonstrated a company, a pace of execution and a dedication that allowed them to hold out their motion,” he stated in his Le Parisien assertion, characterizing the theft as an “assault on cultural heritage and the general public curiosity.”
He advised France 3 that the stolen torque is “priceless, it’s a novel piece on the earth. And past the worth of the gold, it’s a historic piece of Châtillonnais heritage. And it’s actually damaging and regrettable that criminals are attacking the historical past of the Châtillonnais and our nation.”
The torque theft remembers the brazen theft on the Louvre in Paris, wherein thieves made off with $102 million value of jewels in lower than eight minutes, additionally in broad daylight. That top-profile theft finally brought about the museum’s president to resign and expedited the Louvre’s plans to deal with its dated safety techniques, which the museum is predicted to start in January 2027. The Louvre’s Apollo Gallery, the place the stolen crown jewels had been on show, reopened this week with out the jewels, that are nonetheless lacking.
The Louvre heist led to a number of different museums throughout France dealing with related thefts. Earlier this month, thieves focused one other French museum, stealing some $4.57 million value of jewels from the Lalique Museum in Wingen-sur-Moder, Alsace.
The Vix Treasure was found in 1953 on the foot of Mont Lassois, close to the village of Vix, or about 4 miles north of Châtillon-sur-Seine, the place the museum is situated, in response to its web site. The guts of the findings was the tomb of a girl, referred to as the “Dame of Vix” (Princess of Vix), who’s believed to have been buried between 470 and 460 BCE.
The tomb was crammed with valuable objects, together with the golden torque, which is made from pure gold, weighs simply over a pound, and dates to the sixth century BCE; the Vix Krater, which features a depiction of Medusa and was produced round 530 BCE within the Greek colony of Sybaris in southern Italy and it’s unknown the way it got here to Vix; and the Silver Phiale, possible a ceremonial merchandise that’s the “oldest silver vase found north of the Alps.”
The golden torque is of a Celtic design within the form of an arc “with its two ends resting on a lion paw that’s positioned on hole spheres,” per the museum, which notes that it was a logo of energy. Atop every lion paw is an outline of the winged horse Pegasus, representing the Greek affect on the area through the period. That affect is juxtaposed with Celtic imagery of “two pear-shaped balls [that] symbolize the solar.”
Initially, the torque was found on the princess’s cranium and believed to be a diadem, however additional analysis confirmed that it was “worn across the neck, like a necklace, by a member of the aristocracy. Its placement within the tomb possible resulted from the tomb’s collapse shortly after the burial,” per the museum.
The museum provides, “Via its iconographic components and methodology of manufacture, the torque displays a mix of cultures and a switch of expertise, illustrating the colourful commerce in Europe on the finish of the First Iron Age.”
