The Manching museum robbery fits into a pattern of several crimes that have been committed in Germany in recent years. Apparently, art theft has developed into a new business field for organized crime. And for good reason.
The theft of the "Big Maple Leaf" gold coin from Berlin's Bode Museum, the break-in into Dresden's "Green Vault" and now the robbery of Celtic gold treasure from a Manching museum: Germany has recorded a series of high-profile museum thefts in recent years.
Three men from a well-known Arab clan were sentenced to several years in prison for stealing the 100-kilogram coin from Berlin's Bode Museum in 2017. But the coin has not yet been found. The pure gold value of the prestigious exhibit alone was 3.75 million euros.
Two of those later convicted are said to have been involved in the Dresden robbery in 2019. There, in November 2019, burglars stole 21 pieces of jewelry of inestimable cultural and historical value. The perpetrators were probably less interested in that than the fact that the pieces were set with thousands of small diamonds and brilliants. The insured value of the jewelry was 113 million euros. Six young men from the Berlin clan have been on trial for the crime for months. And there is still no trace of these booty items.
The Bavarian investigators are now under enormous time pressure and have expanded their search to include the entire Schengen area. The chance that they will secure the valuable Celtic coins from the perpetrators or possible fences decreases the more time has passed since the theft. According to the Bavarian LKA, the collector's value of the loot is several million euros.
It is the largest Celtic gold find made in the last century. In 1999, an excavation team discovered the coins, believed to be more than 2000 years old. Bavaria's Minister of Art, Markus Blume, called the loss of the Celtic treasure a catastrophe. "The gold coins as evidence of our history are irreplaceable," said the CSU politician. The head collection director of the Archaeological State Collection in Munich, Rupert Gebhard, spoke in the "Süddeutsche Zeitung" of a "unique document" whose research had not yet been completed.
However, it is doubtful that the perpetrators had this cultural-historical value in mind. The sale of such cultural assets is also "very special," said an LKA spokesman. In the past there have been thefts of made-to-order works of art, which then disappeared into private homes forever. Whether it is an order in this case is completely open. But the total of 483 gold coins that were in the showcase weigh around four kilograms. And police and experts fear the coins might be melted down. Around 200,000 euros can currently be achieved with four kilos of gold.
Because the perpetrators had probably cut several fiber optic lines in preparation for the burglary in Manching near Ingolstadt, no alarm was raised and the crime was only noticed when the museum staff saw on Tuesday morning that the gold treasure was missing.
The burglary probably took place in the early hours of the morning, as was the case with the other spectacular cases in Berlin and Dresden. According to information from the German Press Agency, the thieves pried open an emergency exit of the Celtic Roman Museum and then broke open the safety glass showcases with a lot of force. Three more, much larger coins were stolen from a second display case. It is still unclear whether they are also made of gold, how heavy and of what value they are.
The perpetrators are suspected in the area of organized crime, once again. And for good reason. The international police agency Interpol calls the illegal trade in cultural goods a low-risk, high-profit business. The worldwide turnover of these businesses is now estimated at several billion euros per year.
The Swiss lawyer Andrea F. G. Raschèr, who teaches cultural law, cultural policy and compliance in the art trade at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, calls museums and art collections a good alternative to the previously favored bank robberies. The latter are associated with ever greater risks due to increased security precautions and cashless payment transactions. The fact that "museums and collections in Europe - to put it mildly - are not adequately secured" is an open secret. And even if there are fuses, they still have to be bypassed or turned off
Art thieves can be compared to mercenaries "who do the dangerous part of the work at the front," says Raschèr. They often came from war zones or were members of special military units. This could also explain the brutality and destructiveness with which they often acted. "Respect for works of art or human life is alien to them."
Even after earlier burglaries, the question arose as to whether museums and art collections in Germany were adequately protected. These questions have now become even more urgent and they no longer only affect the renowned institutions, as the Manching case shows.
