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Thieves steal Bronze Age artifacts from Spanish museum in four-minute heist
BBC • • world
Key Points:
- Thieves stole a significant portion of the Treasure of Villena, a prehistoric gold collection dating back to the Bronze Age, from a museum in Alicante, Spain, in a rapid and professional heist early Friday morning.
- The stolen items include rings, bowls, and bracelets, with the entire gold collection among the loot, totaling almost ten kilos of gold artifacts.
- The robbery involved a diversion tactic, triggering a false alarm at a local sports center to delay police response, allowing the thieves to complete the theft in just four minutes.
- The Treasure of Villena, discovered in 1963, consists of over 60 Bronze Age objects made of gold, silver, iron, and amber, and is considered a vital part of Villena's cultural heritage.
- This incident follows a series of high-profile European museum thefts, including last year's $102 million jewellery heist at the Louvre in Paris and the recent theft of Renaissance artworks in Sicily.
