Most of the Villena Treasure stolen from museum in four minutes
On the morning of 27 August, most of the items from the Villena Treasure — one of the largest collections of Bronze Age gold artefacts — were stolen from a museum in the Spanish city of Villena. The robbery lasted about four minutes: the museum alarm went off at around 5:20 a.m., and by 5:24 a.m. the perpetrators had already left the building.
Circumstances of the robbery
As The Guardian reports, the perpetrators arrived in several cars. Manuel Pineda, the deputy government representative in Spain's Alicante province, said they likely entered the museum through a window.
A representative of Villena City Council described the operation as extremely swift and professional. According to him, all security systems were activated and there were no malfunctions in the museum's operation. Shortly before the theft, an alarm also went off at the municipal sports centre. Authorities are checking whether that signal was a diversion organised by the robbers.
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The Villena Treasure
The collection contains more than 50 items, mostly made of gold. They include 29 bracelets, 11 bowls, three vessels and other artefacts. The treasure also includes items made of silver, iron and amber, dating to around 1000 BC.
Archaeologist José María Soler discovered the treasure in 1963 in a vessel submerged in a dried-up riverbed in Villena. The city's mayor, Fulgencio Cerdán, told reporters that the collection's historical value cannot be assessed, while the value of the gold itself is about €1.7 million.
