Emmanuel Thomas, DPA I Thursday, July 20, 2023
BAVARIA – German investigators have seized 18 gold nuggets during the arrest of one of the four suspects in connection with the theft of a gold treasure from a museum in Bavaria.
It is “highly probable” that they are part of the loot from last year’s museum theft, the Bavarian State Criminal Police Office (LKA) announced at a press conference in Munich on Thursday.
One of the detained men had been carrying the lumps in a plastic bag when he was arrested on Tuesday.
In November, burglars broke into the Celts and Romans Museum in the northern Bavarian city of Manching and stole a treasure of 483 gold coins from around 100 BC and three other coins, with a total worth of several million euros.
It must be assumed that the treasure “is no longer preserved in its original form, at least in its entirety,” Bavarian Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann said on Thursday.
A first analysis had shown that the material of gold, silver and copper corresponded to the composition of the Manching gold treasure. The investigators therefore assume that it is processed material from the loot.
At the moment, however, further examinations are taking place with the State Archaeological Collection, to which the museum belongs.
On Thursday, investigators in the northern region of Mecklenburg again searched several properties and buildings for parts of the loot and evidence, an LKA spokesman confirmed.
