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Get you up to speed: Thieves snatch diamond necklace worth more than £3,000,000 before ‘calmly walking out’ | News World
Two suspects were involved in a jewellery heist at the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts (MAK), where they stole a diamond necklace worth over £3 million. The thieves smashed a glass display case using a hammer and fled, prompting a manhunt after police released CCTV images of the incident, which occurred on Thursday afternoon.
Vienna police have released CCTV images of the suspects involved in the theft, which occurred during daylight hours. The necklace, designed for the Egyptian royal family, was part of a broader exhibition that began in June and is scheduled to continue until September 27.
Vienna police have launched a manhunt for two suspects following the brazen jewellery heist at the Museum of Applied Arts, with CCTV images released to aid identification. Lilli Hollein, director of MAK, stated that while security measures met the highest standards, the potential for a “targeted, armed attack” remains, necessitating effective response protocols during such incidents.
What remains unclear — Authorities have not disclosed whether any arrests have been made in connection with the jewellery heist.
Thieves steal diamond necklace valued over £3 million in Vienna museum heist
A manhunt has launched for the two suspects captured on CCTV after a jewellery heist in Vienna (Picture: LPD Wien)
Two thieves walked into a museum and grabbed a rare diamond necklace encrusted with more than 600 diamonds in a brazen jewellery heist in Austria.
The duo were so confident they didn’t bother to wear masks, instead waltzing in after buying tickets for the exhibition at the Vienna Museum of Applied Arts (MAK).
The suspects headed for the Van Cleef and Arpels diamond and platinum necklace on display despite security cameras.
Bearing more than 200 carats of gems, the necklace is estimated to be worth over £3 million (€3.5 million).
The diamond necklace with more than 600 precious stones ended up in the hands of the thieves in the latest heist to stun European museums (Picture: Austrian Interior Ministry)
Detectives said the two unmasked men were clearly visible on cameras during the heist, which happened on Thursday afternoon, marking another high-value heist in Europe in recent years.
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Now a manhunt has been launched after Vienna police released CCTV images showing the two suspects.
They ‘smashed a glass display case’ using a hammer before fleeing, the police said
The necklace with 673 diamonds was designed for the Egyptian royal family, and was famously worn by Queen Nazli at her daughter’s wedding with the future Shad of Iran in 1939.
It was part of an exhibition celebrating the work of the French jewellery house, with around 500 items showcased since June. The exhibition is set to run until September 27.
Lilli Hollein, the director of MAK, said the theft of the valuable piece ‘hits us hard,’ the Kurier reports.
Van Cleef and Arpels and MAK had developed security measures for the exhibition.
This included wall-integrated bulletproof glass display cases, which, however, the thieves managed to breach.
The museum said: ‘The security measures meet the highest standards customary for international exhibitions of jewellery.’
Despite world-class measures, a ‘targeted, armed attack during ongoing exhibition operations cannot be completely ruled out,’ Ms Hollein said.
‘In such a situation, it is crucial that the established procedures function and that the staff react appropriately. This was the case here,’ she added.
One of the thieves is said to have been armed, so the security personnel hired from an external security firm evacuated visitors as their top priority in line with standard international practice during art thefts, the museum said.
Thursday’s heist has triggered memories of the Louvre raid last year when a gang broke into the historic Parisian museum using a furniture elevator.
Among the stolen loot were gem-studded royal tiaras, necklaces and earrings dating to the 19th century worth more than £76 million.
The daytime four-minute heist, which stunned France, took place during regular visiting hours on October 19.
The thieves, posing as workers, used a truck-mounted device to reach the second floor before smashing through a window with power tools.
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October 12, 2024
6:18 am
‘Cheer up, you caught the bad guy,’ says killer Virginia McCullough as she is arrested for murdering her parents
A woman who murdered her parents “in cold blood” before hiding them in makeshift tombs for four years told officers to “cheer up, you caught the bad guy” as she was arrested in her home.
Virginia McCullough, 36, poisoned her father John McCullough, 70, with prescription medication and fatally stabbed her mother Lois McCullough, 71, shortly afterwards in 2019.
She ran up large debts on credit cards in her parents’ names and after their deaths, she continued to spend their pensions until she was finally caught in 2023.
In body-worn video footage released by police, a handcuffed – and eerily calm – McCullough told officers: “I did know that this would kind of come eventually.
“It’s proper that I serve my punishment.”
She said she had slipped something into her father’s drink then put his body under a bed on the ground floor, and put her mother’s body in an upstairs wardrobe.
McCullough, having been arrested on suspicion of double murder, told an officer: “Cheer up, at least you’ve caught the bad guy.”
She added: “I know I don’t seem 100% evil.”
At the police station, she told officers where a kitchen knife was, which she described as a “murder weapon”, and a hammer which she said “will still have blood on it”.
McCullough, of Pump Hill, Chelmsford, Essex, was sentenced to life imprisonment on Friday with a minimum term of 36 years at Chelmsford Crown Court, after she admitted to their murders between 17 and 20 June 2019 at an earlier hearing at the same court.
Chelmsford Crown Court heard how she hid their bodies in makeshift tombs at the family home in Great Baddow in Essex, then told persistent lies to cover her tracks.
The court heard she cancelled family arrangements and frequently told doctors and relatives her parents were unwell, on holiday or away on lengthy trips.
But concerns over Mr and Mrs McCullough’s welfare were raised in September 2023 by a GP at their registered practice, and Essex County Council’s safeguarding team referred these to police.
The GP had not seen the couple for some time and said Mr McCullough had failed to collect medication and attend scheduled appointments. It was found McCullough had frequently cancelled appointments, using a range of excuses to explain her father’s absence.
Police said a missing persons investigation was initially launched and McCullough lied to officers, claiming her parents were travelling and would be returning in October.
It became a murder investigation, and when officers forced entry to the house in Pump Hill on September 15 2023, McCullough confessed that her parents’ bodies were in the house and that she had killed them.
Nicola Rice, a specialist prosecutor for the Crown Prosecution Service, said: “McCullough callously and viciously killed both of her parents before concealing their bodies in makeshift tombs within their home address.
“She spent the next four years manipulating and lying to family members, medical staff, financial institutions, and the police, spending her parents’ money and accruing large debts in their name.”
She added: “This was a truly disturbing case, which has left behind it a trail of devastation, and I can only hope that the sentence passed today will help those who loved and cared for Lois and John begin to heal.”
To downplay the genocide, the israelis claim there’s only 20,000 people left in north Gaza, says
@MahaGaza
: the real number exceeds 400,000
Man of the right wing Nigel Farage taking more second jobs and freebie helicopter rides
Gosh he’ll soon be a true blue Tory at this rate
Or far far worse
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To address hardship & the climate crisis, the government must keep the £2 cap & make public transport accessible for all.
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November 23, 2024
8:25 am
Defense alliance NATO chief Mark Rutte has met US President-elect Donald Trump to discuss global security issues, according to a NATO spokesperson.
The meeting took place in Palm Beach, Florida.
During his first term as US president, 2017-2020, Trump pushed for European NATO countries to spend more on defense and described the alliance’s cost-sharing as unfair to the US.
Rutte took over as NATO chief from Norwegian Jens Stoltenberg in November.
Before taking office in January, Trump has nominated Pete Hegseth for the post of defense secretary, which has raised eyebrows among many allies.
Hegseth, 44, has served as an infantry captain in Iraq and Afghanistan, but has no senior military or government officer experience.
November 23, 2024
8:25 am
November 23, 2024
8:17 am
Multiple missiles were fired in an airstrike towards a densely populated part of Lebanon’s capital early on Saturday.
The huge airstrike targeted Beirut’s Basta neighbourhood, and no prior warnings were given by the Israeli military. The largely residential area was struck last month.
At least one violent explosion was heard across the city, Reuters witnesses said, and plumes of smoke could be seen. Scenes of massive destruction at the site were shared online, including a massive crater in the ground.
“Beirut, the capital, woke up to a horrific massacre, as the Israeli enemy’s air force completely destroyed an eight-story residential building with five missiles on Al-Mamoun Street in Basta,” the state-run National News Agency reported.
The health ministry put the initial death toll at four, with 23 wounded. The number is expected to climb in the coming hours as search and rescue efforts continue.
It came after a long day of Israeli airstrikes on Beirut’s southern suburbs, which have been non-stop since last week.
The cross-border fighting between Israel and the Iran-backed Hezbollah militant group escalated into a full-blown war in mid-September.
Israel has bombed southern Lebanon, Beirut’s southern suburbs and the eastern Beqaa region, and has sent ground troops across the border. Hezbollah has continued to fire rockets deeper into Israel.
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