The coins were kept in a museum in Germany.
Thieves stole 483 Celtic coins from a museum in eastern Germany. According to Smithsonian magazine, the theft was carefully planned, and the value of the stolen coins is estimated at 1.7 million dollars.
The coins were found in 1999 during the excavation of a settlement located near modern Munching in Bavaria. They date back to approximately 100 BC. and were exhibited in the Celtic and Roman Museum in Manching.
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“The hoard is still considered the largest cache of ancient Celtic gold discovered in the 20th century, and it remains a mystery why so much gold was stored in one place and how it ended up there,” wrote Christopher F. Schütze of the New York Times.
To commit the theft, the thieves dismantled the cables at the telecommunications facility, leaving about 1,000 subscribers without connection. The police believed that the attackers were targeting local banks and sent additional patrols to them. The law enforcement officers say that they are dealing with organized crime because “you can't just walk into a museum and take coins,” which are well guarded.
This is not the first case of large-scale theft in recent years in Germany. So, in 2017, robbers stole one of the world's largest gold coins from Berlin's Bode Museum. The Canadian coin known as the “Big Maple Leaf” weighs almost 221 pounds (100 kilograms) and is made of 99.999% pure gold. In 2020, three men were sentenced to prison for organizing the robbery, and the fourth was acquitted. Since then, no one has seen the coin. Authorities believe it was melted down and sold.
In 2019, thieves pulled off “one of the biggest jewel heists in history,” stealing more than $100 million worth of valuables from the Green Vaults museum in Dresden.
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Then 18th-century diamonds, a royal necklace of pearls, a diamond Polish Order of the White Eagle, pendants and breast ornaments were taken out of the museum. Four robbers climbed through the window, having previously turned off the electricity and alarm system.
