Unidentified thieves broke into the Villena Museum in Spain early on Thursday morning and stole 66 items from a famous prehistoric gold treasure in four minutes.
The robbery took place in the city of Villena, located in the province of Alicante in southeastern Spain. The museum alarm was triggered at 5:20 a.m. local time on August 27, and the intruders had already fled the building by 5:24 a.m. after entering through a window.
A representative from the city hall described the raid as super-fast and super-professional. The burglars targeted 66 objects from the Treasure of Villena, a historic hoard that archaeologists regard as the most important prehistoric treasure in Europe.
Only a small selection of artifacts was left behind inside the building. These included three silver vessels, a single bracelet, and fragments of a ceremonial sceptre.
Prehistoric Gold and Meteoric Iron
The Treasure of Villena was discovered in 1963 in a dried-up riverbed near the city. The complete collection consists of 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three vessels, and various other decorative objects that date back to approximately 1000 BC, during the late Bronze Age.
Recent scientific analysis revealed that some of the objects in the collection were manufactured using meteoric iron. Meteoric iron refers to metal derived from fallen meteorites, which ancient metalworkers utilized to craft rare items centuries before terrestrial iron smelting became widespread in Europe.
According to estimates by the mayor of Villena, the monetary value of the gold content alone is around 1.7 million euros, equivalent to approximately 169 million rubles. The overall historical and cultural value of the collection is considered irreplaceable by heritage experts.
Investigating the Four-Minute Heist
Municipal authorities noted that an alarm went off at a city sports complex shortly before the break-in at the museum. Police and local officials said they have not ruled out the possibility that the sports complex alarm was triggered intentionally as a diversionary tactic to draw security personnel away from the museum.
The details of the burglary were reported by the British newspaper The Guardian. Law enforcement agencies in Spain are investigating the break-in, tracking the suspects, and working to secure the surrounding area.
The incident follows another recent cultural theft in northern Italy, where masked thieves raided a private museum in the province of Parma. In that attack, the perpetrators escaped with artwork created by celebrated French painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Paul Cézanne, and Henri Matisse.
