Dresden Green Vault robbery

[Jaga]

I was there once and I couldn't believe what they have in this place. I even bought the book with pictures devoted to the Gruenes Gewoelbe. The Robbers chose a trick, they made sure that the electricity will be off, since they started a small fire nearby. I wonder whether they would be able to sell any of these:

www.theguardian.com/world/2019/nov/25/thieves-steal-priceless-treasures-dresden-green-vault-museum


Jewellery of 'immeasurable worth' stolen in dramatic Dresden museum heist
German police say thieves on the run after ‘cultural treasures’ stolen from Green Vault

Thieves in the German city of Dresden have broken into one of Europe’s largest collections of art treasures, making off with three sets of 18th-century jewellery of “immeasurable worth” in what German media has described as the biggest such theft since the second world war.

The dramatic heist took place at dawn on Monday, after a fire broke out at an electrical distribution point nearby, deactivating the museum’s alarm and plunging the area into darkness.

Despite the power cut, a surveillance camera filmed two men breaking into the Grünes Gewölbe (Green Vault) at Dresden’s Royal Palace.

Volker Lange, the head of Dresden police, said the thieves smashed a window and cut through a fence before approaching and breaking open a display cabinet in the Grünes Gewölbe’s Jewel Room in “a targeted manner”.

Officers were at the scene within minutes of being alerted to the robbery shortly before 5am local time, but the suspects had escaped. A burning car found in Dresden early on Monday may have been the getaway vehicle, police said. They have set up roadblocks on motorway approach roads around the city in an attempt to prevent the suspects from leaving. But the close proximity of the gallery to the autobahn is likely to have helped the thieves’ speedy escape, police said.

German media reported the losses from the burglary could run into the high hundreds of millions of euros, but the director of Dresden’s state art collections, Marion Ackermann, said it was impossible to estimate the value of the items.

“We cannot give a value because it is impossible to sell,” she said, appealing to the thieves not to break the collections into pieces. “The material value doesn’t reflect the historic meaning.”

[karl]

Jaga

It would appear as of any thing of value, there will be those that wish to steal it...for this was a very high value loss indeed so. For the historic value may not be counted in money but a part of history for every one to enjoy.

Even though these pieces will be difficult to sell on either the open market or a closed underhand one, they still hold a great value as pieces for black mail for their return.

All in all, it is still a dirty loused situation to steal out of a museum.

Karl

[Jaga]

Karl,

yes, the thieves will become famous or notorious for what they did. I was thinking the same, maybe there will be a movie following what happened in Dresden.

[pieter]

Dear friends,

I consider this a sad case, because valuable jewlery of art historical, design and emotional value for the wonderful rebuild city of Dresden, the Museum and Germany was stolen. The Museum has value due to the fact that a lot of historical artifacts, jewelry, sculptures, art and other valuables were destroyed due to Western allied bombing of the American and British airforces and probably fierce battles with the advancing Sovjet forces in april and may 1945. A lot of German cities and towns were destroyed by Western allied mass bombardments of these human settlements and Industrial commercial zones. According to the United States Strategic Bombing Survey, Allied bombers between 1939 and 1945 dropped 1,415,745 tons of bombs over Germany (51.1% of the total bomb tonnage dropped by Allied bombers in the European campaign), 570,730 tons over France (20.6%), 379,565 tons over Italy (13.7%), 185,625 tons over Austria, Hungary and the Balkans (6.7%), and 218,873 tons over other countries (7.9%). American, British, Polish, Canadian, Australian, New Zealandish and South-African and Czech pilots (also Czech pilots in Polish squadrons) bombed Germany.

Dresden is wonderfully rebuild also with the help of the American-born violinist and conductor Yehudi Menuhin and other people. You could compare Dresden to Warsaw and Wrocław (orginal German name Breslau), also cities that were (partly) rebuild in the original style from before the Second World War.

The controversial American and British bombing of Dresden in World War II towards the end of the war killed approximately 25,000 people, many of whom were civilians, and destroyed the entire city centre. After the war restoration work has helped to reconstruct parts of the historic inner city, including the Katholische Hofkirche, the Zwinger and the famous Semper Oper.

American author Kurt Vonnegut's novel Slaughterhouse Five is loosely based on his first-hand experience of the raid as a POW. In remembrance of the victims, the anniversaries of the bombing of Dresden are marked with peace demonstrations, devotions and marches.



After the Second World War, Dresden became a major industrial centre in the German Democratic Republic (former East Germany) with a great deal of research infrastructure.

Dresden has experienced dramatic changes since the reunification of Germany in the early 1990s. The city still bears many wounds from the bombing raids of 1945, but it has undergone significant reconstruction in recent decades. The urban renewal process, which includes the reconstruction of the area around the Neumarkt square on which the Frauenkirche is situated, will continue for many decades, but public and government interest remains high, and there are numerous large projects underway—both historic reconstructions and modern plans—that will continue the city's recent architectural renaissance. Restoration of the Dresden Frauenkirche, a Lutheran church, was completed in 2005, a year before Dresden's 800th anniversary, notably by privately raised funds. The gold cross on the top of the church was funded officially by "the British people and the House of Windsor". The rebuilding of the church after the reunification of Germany in 1994.


Dresden 1945


Dresden 2019


1945. The destroyed Frauenkirche (Church of our Lady) in Dresden (Foto: Archiv DVB)


Dresden Frauenkirche 2019

The United Nations' cultural organization UNESCO declared the Dresden Elbe Valley to be a World Heritage Site in 2004. After being placed on the list of endangered World Heritage Sites in 2006, the city lost the title in June 2009, due to the construction of the Waldschlößchenbrücke, making it only the second ever World Heritage Site to be removed from the register. UNESCO stated in 2006 that the bridge would destroy the cultural landscape. The city council's legal moves, meant to prevent the bridge from being built, failed.

The Museum Grünes Gewölbe (The Green Vault)



The Green Vault (German: Grünes Gewölbe) is a museum located in Dresden, Germany, which contains the largest treasure collection in Europe. The museum was founded in 1723 by Augustus the Strong of Poland and Saxony, and it features a variety of exhibits in styles from Baroque to Classicism. The Green Vault is named after the formerly malachite green painted column bases and capitals of the initial rooms. It has some claim to be the oldest museum in the world; it is older than the British Museum, opened in 1759, but the Vatican Museums date their foundation to the public display of the newly excavated Laocoön group in 1506.

After the bombing of Dresden during World War II, the Grünes Gewölbe was completely restored. Today, its treasures are shown in two exhibitions: The Historic Green Vault (Historisches Grünes Gewölbe) is famous for its splendors of the historic treasure chamber as it existed in 1733, while the New Green Vault (Neues Grünes Gewölbe) focuses the attention on each individual object in neutral rooms.

The Grünes Gewölbe is located on the first and second floors of the western section of Dresden Castle. It is now part of the Dresden State Art Collections.


Inside the Neues Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden


Inside the Neues Grünes Gewölbe in Dresden


Artifacts stolen from Dresden's Green Vault are seen in a police handout. (Saxony Police)


Art experts warn that a hoard of royal jewelry taken during a daring heist at one of Germany's most famous museums could disappear forever with the pieces being broken up and their gemstones removed for sale. Dozens of items stolen from an 18th century collection at Dresden's Grünes Gewölbe museum, or Green Vault, are so identifiable that it would be very difficult for the thieves to sell them on the open market, said Julian Radcliffe, chairman of the world’s largest private database of lost and stolen art, The Art Loss Register. "If they broke them down, they would be able to sell individual diamonds for a price," he said. But even the loose stones may prove a challenge for the thieves to pawn off. Source: NBC news.


This piece was among the items stolen during a robbery from the Green Vault in Dresden on Monday. Juergen Karpinski / AFP - Getty Images

Cheers,
Pieter

[pieter]

I hope that the three sets of 18th-century jewellery will be traced back and that the criminals will be caught. Of course there will be criminals or excentric art collectionneurs (collectionners) who would love to have this. Italian Maffia clan bosses, drugs cartel leaders, Russian mobsters, West-European drugsdealers or prostitution ring kings. The criminal world is large and no doubt the market of stolen exepensive art, design and jewlery will be large. There will be a black market no doubt. Maybe this robbery was a test, game or proof of these criminals that they could do such a thing.

I am really curious who are behind this robbery and what organisation they belong too.

[pieter]

[pieter]

[pieter]

[Jaga]

Pieter, wonderful presentation. I like Kurt Vonnegut, and he was changed by this tragedy which he participated in. Dresden is both - beautiful but also tragic. I hope they would find these treasuries. I cannot imagine that anybody would try to sell it without being caught. I hope they would not try to melt it and destroy.